There’s been excement about Q’s queer revelatn ‘No Time to Die’ but the anchise’s first gay characters appeared all the way back 1971’s ‘Diamonds Are Forever’. Fifty years on, Adam Bloodworth talks to the actors who played Mr Wt and Mr Kidd about why they’re worth celebratg
Contents:
- ‘I KNEW WAS A URAGEO THG TO DO’: THE CUR STORY OF BOND’S FIRST GAY VILLAS
- JAM BOND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTER REVEAL NO TIME TO DIE MA ME TEAR UP
- BOND, JAM BOND – DIAMONDS ARE FOR OLD GAY HMEN
- BOND, JAM BOND – DIAMONDS ARE FOR OLD GAY HMEN
‘I KNEW WAS A URAGEO THG TO DO’: THE CUR STORY OF BOND’S FIRST GAY VILLAS
This isn’t to give eher of those away, but to divulge a third: that Bond’s handy gadget man, Q, is gay. )All of which mak gay henchmen Mr Wt and Mr Kidd back 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, all the more remarkable.
To give some ntext, 1970, the year the film was shot, 70 per cent of Amerins thought homosexual relatns were wrong, while the UK was only three years to Wt and Mr Kidd were played by Bce Glover and Putter Smh, two straight men, but even then they reportedly riled Connery. Glover, who is now 89, remembers the star beg unfortable wh homoerotic jok durg the shoot.
“He didn’t know me, so he thought I was gay. Villas throughout cema history have tend to reflect current “fears” and attus, and homosexuals have a long history of beg vilified. It’s a topic wrer Vo Rso explor his semal 1981 book The Celluloid Closet, which ns through onscreen queer stereotypg om the Sixti to the Eighti, om Dr Frank-N-Furter The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Sharon Stone’s bisexual Cathere Tramell Basic and director Guy Haton were rponsible for nceivg the characters for the screen and feels as if they med edy orr to create gay characters sued to themselv and mastream dienc of the time.
JAM BOND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTER REVEAL NO TIME TO DIE MA ME TEAR UP
“I didn’t want to be that kd of clichéd gay guy, ” Glover rells, thkg perhaps of the mpns of Richard Burton and Rex Harrison’s gay barbershop uple 1969’s Stairse. ”Lowbridge-Ellis go so far as to pots out that much about the characters is, actually, “unniably homophobic”.
BOND, JAM BOND – DIAMONDS ARE FOR OLD GAY HMEN
From the way Mr Wt was dispatched wh a bomb up his backsi to the obv fact that here were two straight men makg margalised gay men the butt of their jok, ’s easy to argue how Wt and Kidd were explog the LGBT+ muny rather than supportg by simply beg onscreen, the duo had reprented the gay muny – and ma a whole crowd cludg myself feel seen – whether their creators had tend to or not.
An otherwise excellent adventure, Diamonds Are Forever suffers om one major problem, the homophobic portrayal of the ma villas.
BOND, JAM BOND – DIAMONDS ARE FOR OLD GAY HMEN
On the other hand, I nnot ignore the overt homophobia embedd the characterizatn of the two evil henchman Mr.
Wt are obvly tend to be a gay uple, even gog so far to hold hands at one pot. The msage is pretty clear, beg gay or genr non-nformg is somethg done only by evil socpaths. However the blatant homophobia, and brief stance of transphobia, e the whole project to sk faster than an explodg oil rig.