George Lazenby's life from Bond fame to obscurity

London, August 12 : Actor George Lazenby became so arrogant after bagging James Bond's role in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' in the 1960s that he ignored the edicts on how he should dress and conduct himself in public, and thereby made the film's backers furious.

He turned up at the premiere for the film sporting a beard and an earring, which was quite irksome for the producers.

Lazenby was convinced that the main reason he had been cast as Bond was because he was the most suitable person for it.

"I had a lot of fun playing James because it was an extension of the role I was playing in real life. I was getting Hollywood starlets, booze and drugs passed to me left right and centre," the Daily Express quoted him as saying of his boorish behaviour in the late Sixties.

"It was easy. I liked all the things Bond liked - casinos, beaut-iful women, the good life. I was cocksure, confident and I knew how to survive. In a way I became James Bond," he said.

One big mistake he committed was cutting himself off from the glamorous role following monumentally poor advice that continuing to portray James Bond would forever typecast him.

After that, no one wanted to know him, and it all led to a life of obsecurity.

Lazenby is presently estranged from his 46-year-old former tennis champion wife Pam Shriver, and set to embark on a highly damaging court action for custody of their three children -George, aged four, and twins Caitlin and Samuel, two - after six years of marriage.

He says that he loves his children very much, and will be seeking their sole legal and physical custody.

Shriver wants him to have only supervised visits, and has filed a divorce claim citing "irreconcilable differences" with Lazenby, whom she met a year after the death of her first husband, Disney lawyer Joe Shapiro, in 1999.

ANI