Guy Hamilton, the four-time 007 director, is on record as saying he had thought Burt Reynolds would have been an intriguing choice as James Bond.
In the documentary Inside Live And Let Die, he says he had seen Reynolds on television and thought he had all the right elements. We’re told in the documentary (via LALD screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz) that Albert R. Broccoli disagreed, in part, because the producer “wanted Bond tall.”
The documentary didn’t specify which show or shows Hamilton had seen. Here are a couple. The first is Hawk, a 1966 police drama. Here’s the opening, which includes a cigarette commercial:
Here’s the opening to an episode of Dan August, another police drama from producer Quinn Martin that ran for one season on ABC in the 1970-71 season and rerun on CBS in the summer of 1973:
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Albert R. Broccoli, Burt Reynolds, Dan August, Guy Hamilton, Hawk, Inside Live And Let Die, James Bond Films, Quinn Martin |
The Spy Command 
Yep…The man told me so on numerous occasions .
( am confused people : don’t you remember my Guy Hamilton Cannes Film Festival interview published some years back on the defunct ‘Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ website ???
I had then asked the director some inquisitive questions about casting a new 007 , working on pre-production of TSWLM and that sort of little-known subjects… )
😀
I could see him playing Matt Helm after Dean moreso than Bond.