It took crocodile wrangler and stuntman Ross Kananga (the villain in the movie was named after him) 6 takes to complete the scene were he doubles for Sir Roger Moore when Bond flees the bad guys by running across the backs of 3 crocodiles in a swamp. Kananga received $60,000 for the stunt, filmed at Swamp Safaris, his 350 acres of mangrove swamp on Jamaica's north coast, where he kept a herd of over 1000 crocodiles. In a 1973 interview, he explained; "something like that is almost impossible to do. So, I had to do it six times before I got it right. I fell five times. The film company kept sending to London for more clothes. The crocs were chewing off everything when I hit the water, including shoes. I received one hundred ninety-three stitches on my leg and face."
Sir Sean Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of $5.5 million (close to $32 million in 2019 dollars) to play James Bond for a seventh time. Connery gave Sir Roger Moore his personal seal of approval for inheriting his role, calling him "an ideal Bond".
Sir Roger Moore was 45 when he made his debut as 007, making him the oldest actor to portray the iconic character. The youngest was George Lazenby, who was 29 in Im Geheimdienst Ihrer Majestät (1969).
The part on the bridge of the crocodile farm was extremely dangerous to film, since crocodiles are able to jump up from the water and attack, which the crew found out relatively shortly before filming.
The boat chase through the bayous was originally written in the script as just "Scene 156 - The most terrific boat chase you've ever seen". Bond's speedboat jump made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for its distance of one hundred ten feet (thirty-three and a half meters), a record that stood for three years. Clifton James' spontaneous reaction in that scene was kept in the final print. Bond's stunt boat used to make the high jump over Sheriff Pepper's car was specially designed with redistributed weight so it would fly through the air with more stability. The second boat was not scripted to collide with the police car, but after this happened while shooting the stunt, the script was changed to accommodate it.
Eddie Smith: Black Stuntmen Association founder is seen driving the speedboat which crashes during the wedding ceremony during the boat chase. He also had a brief screen presence in Chikago Poker (1974).