Cubby Broccoli - The Fallouts | #006 - From Tailors With Love

CUBBY the fallouts:

On the #006 episode of The Patreon Show, There will Be MORE Bond, myself and Rob Smith discuss the many acrimonious fall outs that Cubby Broccoli had with his leading men over his career.

Whilst known as being a hardworking, giving and loyal man, as well as a talented producer, Albert Cubby Broccoli was also a shrewd business man who was not immune from occasional fallouts with his actors and fellow professionals. We’ll start with Sean Connery,

“What I’m really tired of is a lot of fat slob producers living off the back of lean actors” – Sean Connery said in 1966. Cubby noticed how money orientated Connery was when it came to money, even in the first meeting at EON offices in Audley Street, Mayfair. Cubby said in his book,

“Connery had strong notions about the money he was getting. Money and Mr Connery combined to become quite a problem a few years on. […] Sean started hammering the desk, ‘I want fooking so much or i won’t do the fooking picture! I won’t work for fooking nothing.’ (pg 169 When the Snow Melts).

Cubby admits to being privately amused by it, and Connery admitted sometime later that it had been a bit of an act. In the book, he explains that he had a limited budget and was trying to persuade Terence Young the director to take a smaller salary and a percentage of the films profits. Young refused that. Young got a flat fee of £17,500 for directing the movie.

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When Connery first signed on to play James Bond in Dr. No (1962), he was paid a modest $16,000. However, his salary would grow substantially over the years. By the time Connery returned for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), his salary had increased to $1.25 million. In addition to his salary for his Bond films, Connery negotiated a percentage of the films’ profits, which proved to be a highly lucrative decision. By the time Goldfinger, rolled around which would go on to earn £14 million, a phenomenal sum of money at the time. Connery was on 5 per cent of the net profit as well as a fat signing-on fee.

Still Connery believed he was underpaid for his work on the Bond films and in 1984 filed a lawsuit against Broccoli (for $225 million) claiming he hadn’t been paid $1,275 million for the first five movies and seeking that plus the interest. Some of the claim was believed to be related to the marketing of tie-in products, toys and etc using Connery’s likeness. Broccoli released this statement,

“The only thing I have done to Mr. Connery was to place him in the role of 007, which became the most successful film series in the world and made him an extremely wealthy and important film personality.” The lawsuit was eventually thrown out of court by judge David Kenyon.

In an interview on Johnny Carson show, when asked who is the best Bond villain, Connery quipped, Albert Broccoli.

Around the time when Pierce Brosnan was filming Goldeneye, Cubby Broccoli’s health was in steep decline. Hearing this, Sean Connery phoned him with concern over his situation. Their differences became water under the bridge and Cubby appreciated Connery’s concern.

When Cubby passed away on 27 June 1996 (age 87 years), Connery phoned from Europe to say how sorry he was to hear of Cubby’s death.

Dana Broccoli said in 2000 “He did call me from Europe when Cubby died and said: ‘I’m so sorry’; I appreciated that. I find it difficult to understand Sean, why he has been so angry. It’s very strange. I never did understand it; I guess he has his own route. But the distributors were the people who had his money. Cubby did everything to make him happy; we had a contract for Sean to do a non-Bond film and Cubby gave that up to let him do Marnie with Hitchcock…Cubby was very fair with him. But I don’t have to understand Sean and he doesn’t need my understanding; he’s doing very well without my understanding.”

Dana requested Connery have some input into Cubby’s memorial. He allegedly chose not to (which is his choice). But manners and decency cost nothing.He apparently cited professional commitments for his inability to attend, but was (reportedly) actually playing golf.

Connery didn’t attend Cubby’s Memorial. Timothy Dalton was the only Bond that actually attended Cubby’s funeral.

Connery released this statement “My previous differences with Cubby Broccoli were well-known, but I recently took the opportunity to make my peace with him. I’m extremely sorry to hear of the loss. He will be missed.”

Other fallouts

In Dick Van Dyke’s bio while filming CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, Van Dyke’s wife became ill. He told Cubby he needed to be with her while she underwent some tests. Cubby told her he would do the same thing, put his arm around him and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll shoot around you.”. When Van Dyke returned to the film set, his agent informed him that his paycheque had been docked $80 grand for missing work. He did not want to speak to Cubby after that.

Whilst his friendship and working relationship with Roger Moore was well documented as being extremely harmonious, it wasn’t without its own bumps and indifferences. As he cites in When the Snow Melts.

What was beginning to peeve me was an unwelcome change in Roger Moore’s attitude and behaviour. Ego can be very contagious. One star sees what another star appears to get away with, and soon you have a very stubborn actor on your hands.

When I hired Roger – albeit with some resistance in high places – his reaction had been – ‘wow this is the biggest break in the world. I ought to be paying you for letting me do it.’ And thats the way he behaved for the first 3-4 pictures. What happened after that was almost cliche.

He was suddenly asking for things like private planes to locations. He didn’t want to appear here, do his charity thing or that personal appearance. He was expected to go to a special film event in Deuville but kept us all dangling, saying he wasn’t sure whether he’d attend. Then he declared he wouldn’t go if Grace Jones was there at the same time,. This was very awkward for us. How do you tell someone as volatile as this actress that she can’t go to Deuville because the male lead in this picture apparently doesn’t want her there.

Suddenly all these bizarre neuritic little tricks were bing pulled. They were all bewildering coming from roger who at first had been so cooperative. Like Sean we had made him a millionaire, taken him into a world he’d never have got to close to , doing those light weight series like The Saint or The Persuaders.

I said to him ‘ Quite frankly roger, you’re being a bigger pain than Sean Connery used to be. This surprises me, because you know you have a percentage interest in the picture. You’re not doing me a favour by attending these events . You participate. The success of the picture depends on you being there in person. Its as beneficial to you as it is to everyone else.

He heard me out. Finally he said ‘ ok Cubby I’ll sleep on it’ The attitude was not like the Roger I knew and liked. He went to Deuville . And so did Grace Jones.

pg 269-270 When the Snow Melts