James Bond could have been played by Lord Lucan, claims 007 expert

Imagine if those immortal words “Bond. ” had been uttered not by , but by .

It may sound stranger than fiction, but he is just one of the and wonderful characters to have been considered for the role of the ultimate spy, according to a revelatory new . In The Search For Bond writer Robert Sellers lifts the lid on the lengths to which both those casting 007 and those who fancied their chances as Bond went.

And legendary producer Albert R Broccoli had some very unusual ideas when it came to casting. Before his in 1974 - never to be seen again - after his children’s nanny was murdered, the 7th Earl of Lucan cut quite a dash in London society.

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Robert Sellers writes: “No actor to be sure, but the aristocrat’s background was exemplary. “He was born in 1934, educated at Eton and served in the Coldstream Guards. He was also an inveterate gambler, playboy and man about town. He even owned a soft-top Aston Martin.

“Broccoli knew Lucan, but only as an acquaintance, probably on nodding terms as they frequented many of the same gambling clubs in .” And, according to fellow author Sally Moore, in her 1987 book on Lord Lucan, Sellers says Broccoli saw the peer as “the very image of Commander Bond.”

With looks, breeding and pride, he clearly had all the ingredients of a British spy, for the hard-nosed American film man. It may come as an additional surprise that this wasn’t the first time Lucan had been courted for a film role.

According to Sellers, the aristocrat may indeed have been put off acting after “a disastrous screen test for the famous Italian director Vittorio De Sica.” That was back in 1966, when Lucan was invited to Paris to audition as a British diplomat for a bit part in the movie Woman Times Seven.

Thrown into the spotlight at his screen test, his usual ice cool upper class decorum left him completely. Consumed with stage fright, he froze in front of the cameras and could barely speak. Fluffing his lines, he was turned down for the role.

Rather than ‘shaken, not stirred,” he was completely shaken up! But, according to a second Lucan biographer, Duncan Maclaughlin, in his 2003 book, it was Lucan himself who took the initiative regarding a screen test for Bond.

According to the biographer: “Broccoli saw the results, decided the blue-blooded wannabe was “too wooden,” and the test came to nothing.” Other reports, maintaining it was Broccoli who approached Lucan, not the other way around, claim the aristo reacted to the suggestion he should audition by simply exclaiming: “Good heavens!”

• The Search For Bond: How the 007 Role was Won and Lost by Robert Sellers, is out on October 17 published by .