Gregory Ratoff Relinquished James Bond Rights -

Gregory Ratoff, a man whose imposing girth was matched only by his booming, Russian-accented voice, sat behind a desk cluttered with unproduced scripts. He held a single, typewritten document in his hands. It was a legal agreement, dry and bureaucratic, but to Ratoff, it felt like a confession of defeat.

"I saw him, you know," Ratoff said, his voice dropping to a rumble. "In my mind. This Bond. I saw him in a tuxedo, smoking a cigarette. I saw the girl. But nobody wants him. They say he is too British. Too cold." gregory ratoff relinquished james bond rights

But the vision had faded. Hollywood was a town of walls, and Ratoff had hit every one. The studios didn't want a British spy. They wanted cowboys and Romans. They wanted epics, not espionage. And Ratoff, despite his ferocious energy, couldn't get the picture set up. The option payments were coming due, and the money wasn't there to sustain a dream that refused to wake up. Gregory Ratoff, a man whose imposing girth was