'Skyfall' Daniel Craig Related To Real James Bond, Details
Not only does Daniel Craig play 007 spy and ladies man James Bond on the big screen, but genealogy reports revealed that the actor is in fact related to the real-life person with the same first and last name.
Yahoo reported findings from Ancestry.com revealing that the 44-year-old actor is actually related to Bond, the man who author Ian Fleming named the iconic character after in his first novel back in 1953, "Casino Royale."
Craig and Bond, who died in 1989, are related through John of Gaunt, who is the Duke of Lancaster, who is also the son of King Edward III of England, according to Ancestry.com.
The real Bond (yes, there is a real man named James Bond) was not a international spy but in fact a bird expert, also known as an ornithologist. Fleming knew of Bond, who published a book titled "Birds of the West Indies." When it came time to name the lead character in his book, Yahoo reported that Fleming thought of the character to be "an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened" and he wanted a name to match that.
"When I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard," he told The New York Times in 1962.
Ian Fleming lived from 1908 to 1964. He created his fiction and memorable characters, including "M" and "Q," based on his own experiences as a British naval intelligence officer, and acts by other infamous spies.
"Skyfall" is Craig's third 007 film. The movie is the 23rd installment of the frachise and it also stars Javier Bardem and Judi Dench, who has been in every James Bond movie since 1995. In the United Kingdom, where both the film's character and the real James Bond are from, "Skyfall" opened to an estimated $32.4 million, setting a new all-time Saturday attendance record, according to Deadline. It was also the biggest opening of 2012 and the biggest 2D Friday-to-Sunday opening weekend in history in the UK.
The film also did better 76 percent better in box office numbers compared to "Casino Royale" and 30 percent better than "Quantum of Solace," the report added.
