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How did Ian Fleming's real life events influence his creation of world-famous spy James Bond?

"The name's Bond, James Bond." These words may be one of the most famous quotes in the history of literature and cinema. Every woman wants him. Every man wants to be him. He is suave, sophisticated, witty and skillful. He has starred in over twenty films and dozens of books and short stories. He is world-famous spy James Bond. Many know about Agent 007, but not as many people know about his origins, or his creator, British novelist Ian Fleming. When you read about a life like Bond's it's easy to think of it all as fiction. No one could live a life like that. Well, you're about to find out about someone who did.

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on May 28, 1908 to Valentine Fleming and Evelyn St. Croix in the town of Mayfair, London. He had three brothers, one older, Peter, and two younger, Michael and Richard, as well as an illegitimate half-sister named Amaryllis. His family was of higher status in London, as his grandfather, Robert Fleming, was a wealthy, highly-distinguished Scottish banker. But it wasn't just their wealth that made the Flemings so well-respected. It also came from Valentine's involvement in Parliament and was a service-oriented landowner in Oxfordshire, right up until his death during the Great War in 1917, just prior to Ian's ninth birthday.

Following the death, his mother inherited the family trust and estate, making their family extremely wealthy. The only stipulation was that Evelyn could never remarry if she wanted to keep the estate. Throughout his early life, Ian always felt he lived in the shadow of his brother Peter, who was a well-known travel writer and became the father-figure to the family following Valentine's death. Ian longed to make a name for himself and outdo Peter, and that goal is what he set his sights on for years to come.

During his early schooling, Ian attended Durnford School, which was right next to the estate of a family known as the Bonds. They had a motto; "Orbis non sufficit", or "The world is not enough". Ian attended a few schools in his years, such as Sunningdale School in Berkshire and Eton College. For two years straight, Ian was Victor Ludorum, a high honor in collegiate athletics, at Eton. He was only the second person in history to do so there. He eventually wound up at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which did not match well with his desire to make a name for himself, and he was eventually kicked out for being caught out after curfew one night.

It wasn't until Ian made his way for schooling in the Austrian town of Kitzbuhel that he had finally found a place to make a name for himself and escape the shadow of his father and brother. There, he was taught by Forbes and Phyllis Dennis and was able to become popular amongst his classmates, who admired his looks and personality, something that he and his future creation would certainly have in common.

Ian had a hard time decided what he wanted to do with his life. His original intent was to become a part of the Foreign Office, which tried to maintain diplomatic relations throughout the world. But after failing the acceptance exam, he moved on to trying out journalism, which his brother Peter was famous for. He joined Reuters, which is a database that gathers information throughout the world and provides it to newspapers and broadcasters, where he served a very successful but brief career. Unfortunately for him, he was considered nothing more than the other Fleming, being lessened to his brother Peter. Another unfortunate thing was that money for Ian was tight and journalism didn't supply a large amount of money for him, so Ian decided to go against his original desire to create a name for himself and used his name to help him get a job at a London banking firm (as his grandfather was the wealthy Scottish banker).

Though banking didn't give him the complete wealth he desired, it did earn him enough to live on his own in Belgravia, where he lived his own Bond lifestyle, eating, drinking, and romancing, while hosting and attending high-stakes card games. But Ian apparently grew tired of this lifestyle, and gave a call to some friends he had made at the Foreign Office while at Reuters. They assigned him to a trade mission in the Soviet Union. This meant that Ian had been and continued to be spying for the Foreign Office.

In May, 1939, Ian took a more intimate job with the Foreign Office, working in the Naval Intelligence section, where he became a Commander and worked as right-hand-man to a top British spy named Admiral John Godfrey. Ian finally found a fitting place for himself, where he would plan and carry out some very dangerous missions with the British Naval Service, and was involved in and created some very famous missions, such as Operation Ruthless, where British soldiers would dress up as Luftwaffe uniforms and pretend to have been involved in an airplane crash. There, they'd wait to be picked up by German patrol boats and would surprise attack them and hijack the German ship, stealing any information on board. His most famous plan, though, was Operation Goldeneye, designed to keep communications with Gibraltar if the Spanish were to join the Axis powers and invade Gibraltar with Germany's help.

Fleming truly honed in on his writing skills during the war, as well. Being assistant to the Admiral, Ian had to take numerous notes and memos for his commander. His writing style greatly complimented the notes, and received wide acclaim from other Intelligence members, one time receiving an engraved revolver for his services. He finally reached a high enough status to become the leader of a 30 Assault Unit, who worked behind the lines, protecting files from the Germans. Though Ian stayed safely behind his desk in London, all victories and successes (and there were many) from the Unit were placed in Ian's corner. He was finally making his own name for himself.

All of that Naval work was good for Ian while it lasted, but when he attended a Naval Conference is Jamaica during the final year of the war, he had finally found the place he wanted to be. The land was a paradise to Ian, and he knew that there wasn't another place on earth he'd rather be after the war than there. So that was where he moved. The war had ended and Ian immediately began the preparation for his home. He designed it himself, and made sure it nice enough to live in, but not anything that was fancy, though it was still regarded as one of the most envied homes in the country. It was certainly less than stellar, with no hot water, no glass windows, and no air conditioning. But it was still Ian's paradise, which he named "Goldeneye".

Every Winter, he would travel there to do what he did best; eat, drink and be merry. But eventually his age caught up with him and he made a bit too merry, impregnating a married woman who he had been having an affair with. Ian decided it was time to settle down with a woman and chose to marry Lady Anne Rothermere. Though he did need to wait for her to settle her divorce from her husband, so while he waited for that, he began writing his first draft for a book entitled Casino Royale while at his Jamaican home. This was the start of a whole new beginning for Ian.

A lot can be said for Ian's writing career. The main thing being is that it was, without a doubt, successful. Ian continued on to write a total of fourteen Bond books, each one delving into different missions of adventure and lust for Fleming's creation. While looking back through Ian's life, you can find many influences he used in writing his books. The earliest of which is found in his early schooling, where he took the name of the local family for the name of his self-made hero; James Bond.

While he had already had that name in mind for his character, it was a solidified idea when Ian read a book called Birds of the West Indies by none other than James Bond, a successor of the Bond family. As for their motto "Orbis non sufficit"? Well, that went on to become the motto for the fictional James Bond's family, as well, as revealed to us in Fleming's eleventh book of the series On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Not only that, its English translation "The world is not enough" went on to become the title of the nineteenth Bond film. But there is only more from there.

The character of Bond has had many alleged derivatives, but only one holds true the most consistently; Fleming, himself. Fleming was a handsomely rugged, quick-witted, ladies man who was never shy to say what was on his mind. Plus, he was a spy and a Commander for the British Navy, just like Bond. What better way to create one of the world's most well-known characters than to base him off yourself? But Ian also looked outside of himself for inspiration for his books. He based Bond's boss M off of Admiral John Godfrey, as they both apparently have the same personalities. But of all the ways that Ian found influence, the biggest was at a local gentleman's club named Boodle's. There, he created some well known Bond villains, like the famous Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, whom Bond fought several times throughout the series. He was based off of a frequent guest to the club.

Many guests that Fleming saw at the club were made into characters for his books. The club, itself, found influence in the Bond series, as it was a favorite of Bond's boss M (the name changed to Blades for the series) as well as Moonraker villain Hugo Drax. The Blades club is also featured in the Bond film Die Another Day, where Bond duels villain Gustav Graves in a sword fight. The name of his famous operation from his war days and his Jamaican home Goldeneye later became the title of the seventeenth film in the series. Fleming took a lot of his wartime missions and placed them into the series, as well, for missions for his created Agent 007. Another fun influence is that call-number for Bond, 007. That came from a bus line that Ian frequently traveled on in London, which was bus number 007.

As if the books couldn't have given Fleming enough success with Bond, in 1961 he sold the rights to the character to Mr. Harry Saltzman and Mr. Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, two names all Bond fans are quite familiar with. Shooting began for the first Bond film Dr. No in 1961. Fleming suggested three men, originally, for the role of Bond. The first being David Niven (who later played Bond in a spoof of the films in 1967's Casino Royale), then Roger Moore (who later played Bond for seven films, from 1973's Live and Let Die to 1985's A View to a Kill). Fleming's final suggest was his step cousin, Christopher Lee (who later played Bond villain Francisco Scaramanga in the film adaptation of Fleming's The Man With the Golden Gun).

Saltzman and Broccoli's ultimate choice for Bond was an actor named Sean Connery, who, at the time, was almost unheard of as an actor. He played Bond for six official Bond films and one unofficial one. Most of the Bond film names and plots were derived from Fleming's Bond books and short stories. The film opened with huge success, catching on a spy fever that soared throughout the early 60s and much farther beyond.

Unfortunately, during filming for the third Bond film, 1964's Goldfinger, Fleming's health began declining. His earlier years of drinking a lot, excessive smoking, and his love for butter-rich foods were finally catching up to him and slowly ruining his heath. Ian Fleming passed away on August 12, 1964, shortly after he had visited the set of the film. He was only 56 years old.

Fleming influenced something not many other people could. He created a whole new universe, a whole new genre for book and cinema that was almost unheard of at the time it came to be. His life of secret missions, romances, eating, drinking and smoking all, in its own way, contributed to the creation of one of history's most famous characters. Someone who was sleek, stylish and a ladies man, much like the creator himself.

It's unfortunate to see how Fleming's life has seemed to go neglected throughout later generations, but Bond fans know all about the man who would be Bond. For nearly fifty years, the Bond franchise has been going strong, and their doesn't appear to be any end in sight. From Sean Connery to current Bond Daniel Craig, from Ian Fleming to current Bond writer Sebastian Faulks, there seems to be nothing stopping one man's creation from ever slowing down. Finally, after over one hundred years, Ian Fleming has made a name for himself, and that name is Bond, James Bond.