- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJohn Bernard Lee
- Height1.84 m
- Best remembered as 'M' in the James Bond films, Bernard Lee was a popular character player in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Born into a theatrical family, he made his stage debut at age six and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He first appeared on the West End stage in London in 1928, and continued to work in the theatre during the 1930s, taking only occasional film roles.
It was only after World War II that he concentrated his efforts on the cinema, and was much in demand in British films of the 1950s as friendly authority figures, including army sergeants, police detectives or navy officers. Detectives became a particular specialty, and he played this role in more than a dozen films, including La lampe bleue (1950), Plus fort que le diable (1953) and Détective du bon Dieu (1954). In the early 1960s, he also made regular appearances as police detectives in the The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1959) second feature series, usually as "Inspector Meredith". He also made memorable appearances in Le Troisième Homme (1949), La nuit commence à l'aube (1950), Commando sur Saint-Nazaire (1952), La bataille du Rio de la Plata (1956), Dunkerque (1958) and Le vent garde son secret (1961).
He was effectively cast against type in only two films, as the union agitator in Le silence de la colère (1960), and as a disgruntled civil servant who becomes a spy for the Russians in Fabrique d'espions (1964).
In 1962, he made his first appearance as the head of the British secret service in the first James Bond film, James Bond 007 contre Dr. No (1962). He went on to be featured in the next ten films in the series, appearing with Sean Connery, George Lazenby and, later, Roger Moore as Bond, and will probably be considered the definitive "M" by more than one generation of Bond fans.- IMDb mini biography by: Jeff Watts <jeffwattsuk@yahoo.co.uk>
- SpousesUrsula G. McHale(1975 - January 16, 1981) (his death)Gladys Emily Merredew(1934 - January 30, 1972) (her death, 1 child)
- ChildrenAnna Lee
- RelativesJonny Lee Miller(Grandchild)
- Grandfather of Jonny Lee Miller
- After losing his wife Gladys in a house fire and most of his money in a mugging, he became suicidally depressed and took to drinking. By chance, he met Richard Burton in a pub shortly thereafter. After hearing of his troubles, Burton wrote Lee a check for $6,000 on the spot. Lee snapped out of his depression, cleared his debts, remarried and continued working up till his death in 1981.
- He was seriously ill during the filming of Vivre et laisser mourir (1973), causing the producers to consider replacing him with Kenneth More. However Lee recovered sufficiently to play the character M until Moonraker (1979), the last Bond film made before his death from stomach cancer in 1981.
- A portrait of him (in the character of "M") can be seen briefly in the background of the MI6 castle in the 007 film Le monde ne suffit pas (1999).
- While making Au service secret de Sa Majesté (1969), George Lazenby, who portrayed Bond in the film, was fooling around on horseback and caused Lee to fall into a fence and tear his leg open. As no doctor was available, the local vet stitched the gash up.
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