2013 Oscars to have James Bond tribute

Poster for a 1972 007 triple feature

The 2013 Oscars will have a James Bond tribute, according to a PRESS RELASE on the Oscars’ official Web site.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The 85th Academy Awards® will include a tribute to the James Bond movie franchise, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year, the telecast’s producers announced today.

“We are very happy to include a special sequence on our show saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday,” said producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. “Starting with ‘Dr. No’ back in 1962, the 007 movies have become the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon.”

This isn’t the first 007 tribute for the Oscars.

In 1982, Eon Productions co-founder Albert R. Broccoli was scheduled to receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which is given to producers for their body of work. There was a Moonraker-themed Bond dance number presented as Sheena Easton sang For Your Eyes Only, the Oscar-nominated song.

Participating were Harold Sakata as Oddjob and Richard Kiel as Jaws. Bill Conti, who had scored 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, was the musical director for the broadcast and he worked in some of his music from that movie. (Conti had also co-written the For Your Eyes Only song). It was the last time a 007 film was nominated for an Oscar, but it didn’t win.

All of that was a prelude to Roger Moore presenting the award to Broccoli and the gracious speech given by the man known as Cubby. To view it, CLICK HERE. Embedding isn’t enabled but we left up the image to dress up the look of this post.

UPDATE: A video copy of Easton’s performance is on YouTube. You can take a look unless YouTube yanks it: