Samantha was among mourners who gathered at a 12th Century church in
Battle, Sussex, for a simple family service to
remember the James Bond star.
The Right Reverend John Duggan, former Bishop of Tuam in Ireland - who
is a close friend of the family - described Desmond as "a very loving
husband, father and grandfather".
Bond actor Desmond was devoted to his wife of 61 years, Pamela, their
two sons and four grand- children.
But Pamela, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, was too frail to
attend - readings were given instead by their sons, Justin
and Ivor.
None of the big-name 007 stars was at yesterday's funeral but they are
expected to attend a memorial service in London later this year.
Desmond, of Bexhill, Sussex, died in hospital after a car smash near his
home two weeks ago.
Llewelyn - who starred as gadget boffin Q in 17 James Bond movies - told film producers the Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star could easily step into Q's shoes.
The 85-year-old was speaking in an interview for a television series to be screened in the new year.
Llewelyn was delighted with Cleese's performance as R in the latest Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. He said: "I think it is only right that R should follow Q - John will be very, very good."
But Llewelyn had hoped to be fit enough to carry on in the role himself.
He said: "John Cleese and I have an agreement - he's taking over when he's 75 and I'm 100."
Llewelyn was killed earlier this month in a head-on car crash as he
returned to his home at Bexley, East Sussex, from a book-signing.
Welsh TV chiefs decided to carry on with the new series - A Life Of Q - as a tribute to Llewelyn. Producer Andy Brice said: "Desmond was full of praise for John. He said he was extremely flattered to have an assistant of his calibre.
"He could not think of anyone better to take over his mantle and felt
John Cleese would continue to bring the eccentric
tradition of the mad boffin to the role."
The interview is part of a two-part series which will air on HTV in
Wales on January 4 and 11.
The series will take viewers back to Llewelyn's early days in south
Wales through to interviews with him on the set of his last
film.
Family and friends today gathered to say a final farewell to James
Bond legend, actor Desmond Llewelyn.
Mr Llewelyn, who played eccentric inventor Q in 17 of the 19 Bond
movies, was killed 16 days ago in a head-on car crash.
He was 85.
The service was held at the 12th century St Mary The Virgin Church in Battle, east Sussex, near Mr Llewelyn's home in Bexhill. He and his wife Pamela were married there in 1938.
His body was brought to the church in a simple wooden coffin with two wreaths on top for the 35-minute service, conducted by the Reverend William Cummings.
The actor's two sons Ivor and Justin, with 300 family and friends, sang the hymn Jesus, Lover of my Soul. Ivor then read Remember, by Christina Rossetti.
A passage from Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan was read by Justin and followed by the hymn Alleluia, Sing to Jesus.
Mr Cummings read from Chapter 15 Corinthians and an address was given by the Right Reverend John Duggan, former bishop of Tuam, Ireland who was a close friend of Mr Llewelyn's for more than 30 years.
He said: "Today is a family occasion and I propose to try and think of
him as a husband, father and grandfather - a very loving husband, father and grandfather.
"Desmond was a man who loved his home and his garden," he added.
Mr Duggan remembered that at his first meeting with Mr Llewelyn more than 30 years ago, the actor drove him home after he fainted in the pulpit .
And he recalled that Mr Llewelyn was a "wonderful host", who gave very good parties with his wife.
Pamela, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease, did not attend the
funeral.
A private cremation was held later at nearby Hastings crematorium.
Mr Llewelyn died in hospital after an accident on the A27 near Lewes, East Sussex. He had been driving to sign copies of his biography at Drusillas Zoo Park, Alfriston.
None of the big-name 007 stars was at today's funeral but they are
expected to attend a memorial service in London later this year.
However, Samantha Bond, who plays Miss Moneypenny in the latest film The World Is Not Enough and Colin Salmon, who
plays M's chief of staff, were among the mourners.
DESMOND Llewelyn, who played Q in 17 James Bond movies before his death last
month, has his funeral in Battle, East
Sussex, tomorrow. But though each of the actors who has played Bond has been
invited to see the old boy off, it looks,
poignantly, as if Q may go to his grave without the benediction of a
raised eyebrow and a boyish smirk.
"I know Roger Moore is busy with Unicef duties," says Q's biographer
Sandy Hernu. "It is difficult. They're all tied up." Too
true. George Lazenby, says Hernu, "lives in Los Angeles and hasn't
notified us that he is coming over". Timothy Dalton is "working in LA at the
moment"; and Pierce Brosnan's London agent refers me, once again, to LA.
FIRLE, England (AP) - Desmond Llewelyn, who starred as the eccentric
scientist Q in a string of James Bond films, was killed in a head-on car
crash Sunday, police said. He was 85.
The collision, which happened near the town of Firle in East Sussex, came as
Llewelyn was returning alone from a book signing. The three occupants of the
second car were believed to be in stable condition.
The actor was best-known for his role of Q the gadget expert who equipped
007
with the latest spy tool - from toxic fountain pens to deadly umbrellas - in
17 Bond films dating back to "From Russia with Love" up to the recent "The
World Is Not Enough."
Llewelyn was born in South Wales in 1914, the son of a coal mining engineer.
He landed the coveted role of Q despite the director's attempts to have the
character speak with a Welsh accent.
"My interpretation of the character was that of a toffee-nosed English," he
once said. "At the risk of losing the part and with silent apologies to my
native land, I launched into Q's lines using the worst Welsh accent,
followed
by the same in English."
Despite achieving near-cult status for his on-screen dexterity with gadgets,
Llewelyn said he was a bungler in real life.
"Most gadgets expire or explode as I touch them," he said in an interview in
October.
Llewelyn lived in Bexhill, East Sussex. He leaves two sons, Ivor, 50, and
Justin, 45, and two grandchildren.
Back to top.
Desmond Llewelyn, the man loved by millions as Q in the James Bond
films, died today in a head-on car crash.
The actor, who played the caustic, gadget-minded Q, featured in all but
two of the 007 films spanning 36 years.
Tonight his 50-year-old son Ivor spoke of the family's shock at his
sudden death.
"We are just devastated because like any car crash it is totally
unexpected and totally sudden," he said.
Ivor, who lived opposite his father in Bexhill, East Sussex, said his
wife Georgia and two sons Hugo, eight, and Rory, six, were all extremely
upset by the news.
"We were expecting him to come back and have supper with us tonight. We
are very close.
"He ate with us every evening when he was at home. He was so pleased to
have done the last James Bond film and as an actor he liked to be
working, he was such a very active man.
"The children are obviously upset. I will remember him as a father and
for all the things fathers do. He was a splendid father and we were a
very close family," Mr Llewelyn added.
The 85-year-old actor was killed in the crash on the A27, at Firle, East
Sussex.
He had been at a book signing event at nearby Drusillas Park before the
fatal smash involving his blue Renault Megane and
another car.
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said he was airlifted from the scene by
the force's helicopter and taken to Eastbourne
District General Hospital where he died of his massive internal
injuries. He was alone in the car, the spokeswoman said.
As one of the famous Bond institutions, South Wales-born Llewelyn had a
massive fan base which had become evident in the last week as he
attended books signings for his new biography.
He had been due to sign copies of Q, The Biography of Desmond Llewelyn,
tomorrow at Forbidden Planet in New Oxford
Street, central London.
Sandy Hernu who spent the last two years working with Llewelyn on the
book, tonight described the actor as "a lovely man,
absolutely genuine and kind person, one of the kindest people I have
met.
"He was enormously funny and entertaining and loved telling me lots of
stories and was great fun to be with.
"The man you saw on screen was very similar to the man in real life.
"But unlike his character he hated gadgets - they just were not him.
"As he would always say 'I hate gadgets they always go wrong on me"'.
Speaking about his affection for the Bond films, she added: "He loved
doing them. He loved them and the reaction he got from the fans.
"It wasn't until we started touring with the book that I started to
appreciate how much his fans absolutely adored him."
Ms Hernu said the veteran actor refused to say The World is Not Enough was his last Bond film.
She said: "He would always say he would love to do more Bonds."
Film critic Barry Norman tonight said: "Q was quite the biggest part
that he played and really the only one that he will be
remembered for - and he played it very well.
"It is sad and ironic that it was quite clear in the latest film that it
was to be his last.
"There was a strong indication that he was going to be replaced by John
Cleese's character.
"His acting career had probably come to an end but still what a terrible
way to die."
And Mr Norman, was quick to pay tribute to the man who became one of the
most famous support actors of the last 50 years.
He said: "He had the most peculiar career, essentially he was never
anything other then a support actor.
"And from the very first Bond movie he really did little else other than
Q, but he had done some very good work beforehand."
Llewelyn appeared in all the Bond films apart from Dr No and Live and
Let Die.
A 35-year-old man and his female companion, who were in a bronze Fiat
Bravo, were also injured in the crash today.
They were also taken to Eastbourne District General Hospital.
The man was tonight in a stable condition, while the woman suffered
minor injuries.
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MONEYPENNY'S TEARS FOR HER Q;
FUNERAL: BOND ACTOR DESMOND IS MOURNED
MISS Moneypenny actress Samantha Bond wept yesterday as screen boss Q - actor Desmond Llewelyn - was cremated.
Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd.
Daily Record
December 27, 1999, MondayLLEWELYN BACKED CLEESE AS MAN TO FILL Q'S SHOES
JAMES Bond actor Desmond Llewelyn backed John Cleese to be his successor just weeks before his death.
The Press Association Limited/Press Association Newsfile
January 6, 2000, ThursdayBOND'S Q MOURNED BY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
by Jo Willey, PA News
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
January 05, 2000, Wednesday No Bond for Q farewell
Edited by Sam Leith
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 17:10:44 ESTActor Who Played 'Q' on Bond Dies
December 19, 1999
PR Newswire Europe Limited/Press Association Newsfile
December 19, 1999, Sunday/HOME NEWS BOND ACTOR DESMOND LLEWELYN KILLED IN CAR SMASH
by Karen Edwards, PA News
Associated Press/ AP Online
December 19, 1999; Sunday 16:31 Eastern
Time/ International news
The collision, which happened near the town of Firle in East Sussex, came as Llewelyn was returning home alone from a book signing. He suffered massive internal injuries and died after being air lifted to a nearby hospital, police said. The three occupants of a second car were in stable condition. There was no immediate word on the cause of the accident.
The actor was best known for his role as Q, who equipped 007 with the latest spy tools from toxic fountain pens to exploding toothpaste in 17 Bond films from 1963's ''From Russia with Love'' up to the current film ''The World Is Not Enough.''
Over the years, Q grew fond of Bond but could never forgive him for abusing his inventions. Q's first line in the 1997 film ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is ''Now pay attention 007,'' and his last is ''Oh, grow up 007.''
Llewelyn was born in South Wales in 1914, the son of a coal mining engineer. He studied for a career as a chartered accountant but decided to become an actor. He made his first film, ''Ask A Policeman,'' in 1939.
His career was halted by World War II, and he served as a second lieutenant assigned to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was captured by German soldiers in France and spent five years as a prisoner of war.
After the war, Llewelyn returned to London and had a small uncredited role in the 1963 film ''Cleopatra.'' He also appeared in ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' in 1968.
He landed the coveted role of Q, even though he disagreed with the director who wanted the character to speak with a Welsh accent.
''My interpretation of the character was that of a toffee-nosed English,'' Llewelyn once said. ''At the risk of losing the part and with silent apologies to my native land, I launched into Q's lines using the worst Welsh accent, followed by the same in English.''
Llewelyn said his favorite Bond invention was a grenade pen from 1995's ''GoldenEye,'' but despite achieving near-cult status for his on-screen dexterity with gadgets, Llewelyn said he was a bungler off camera.
''In real life I'm allergic to gadgets,'' he said in an interview with Computer Life magazine. ''They just don't work for me, not even those plastic cards for hotel room doors.''
Llewelyn lived in Bexhill, East Sussex. He is survived by his wife Pamela, 85, two sons, Ivor, 50, and Justin, 45, and two grandchildren.
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DESMOND Llewelyn, who died yesterday in a car crash, first played James Bond's gadget master Q in From Russia With Love in 1963.
In more than 35 years as the inimitable Q, he appeared in all but two Bond films, and despite being 85 took the role in the latest of the genre The World is Not Enough.
Llewelyn, from Bexhill, East Sussex, whose wife Pamela, 86, lives in a nursing home in the town, was due to have had supper with his family last night. He had two sons, Ivor and Justin, and grandchildren, Charlotte, nine, Hugo, eight, Rory, six, and five-year-old Rosamund.
Ivor, 50, who was at his father's bedside when he died, paid warm tribute last night.
"Really what you saw in the films was what he was," he said. "He was a very kind, very lovable man. As a father he was great. I never remember a cross word from him.
"We are all devastated because it was so sudden. We were expecting him to come and have supper with us tonight. He had been staying with friends in Wales. He had been at a book signing there.
"The police told me at about 3.30pm. I went with them to the hospital and was with him when he died. He was never conscious though. He would have been spending Christmas with us. He will be greatly missed."
He said his father used to visit his wife most days that he was here. "He met my mother in Bexhill when he was in rep in the 1930s. We moved here in 1965. We had a party in September for all of us because it was his 85th birthday, my 50th and my wife Georgia's 45th."
Barry Norman, the film critic, said: "Q was quite the biggest part that he played and really the only one that he will be remembered for - and he played it very well."
The character played such a large part in Llewelyn's life that he used it as the title of his book Q, The Biography of Desmond Llewelyn.
Sandy Hernu, who spent the last two years working with Llewelyn on his life story, described him as "a lovely man, absolutely genuine and a kind person, one of the kindest people I have met".
She said: "He was enormously funny and entertaining and loved telling me lots of stories and was great fun to be with. The man you saw on screen was very similar to the man in real life. He was one of the old school of actors."
In August, at the launch of the James Bond ride at the Trocadero, Leicester Square, Llewelyn was asked if The World is Not Enough would be his last Bond film.
He replied: "I hope not. But that's up to the producers and God. If the producers still want me and God doesn't, I'm perfectly prepared to be in the next one. I hope to be anyway."
Llewelyn was born in South Wales in 1914, the son of a coal mining engineer. He was sent to boarding school in 1922 aged nine and, in his own words, grew up in a "typical sort of upper-middle-class way" in Newport.
After prep school he went to Radley, in Oxfordshire. During the Second World War he served as a Royal Welch Fusilier and was captured shortly before Dunkirk and held as a PoW.
When he secured the role of Q he insisted on giving him an English accent despite the director's desire for him to have a Welsh brogue.
In an interview last year, he said: "My interpretation of the character was that of a toffee-nosed English."
Playing the charming eccentric who supplied secret agent James Bond with an array of gadgets made Llewelyn a cult figure among movie fans.
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The 85-year-old star, gadget boffin Q in all but two of the 19 Bond movies, was driving his Renault Megane when it smashed into another car at an accident blackspot near Firle, East Sussex.
He was cut free from the wreckage by fire crews and airlifted by police helicopter to Eastbourne General Hospital where doctors fought a vain battle to save his life. He died from massive internal injuries.
Desmond, the son of a coal miner from South Wales, is survived by his wife of 61 years, Pamela, 85, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease.
The actor was returning to his home at nearby Bexhill from a signing session for a new book, Q, The Biography of Desmond Llewelyn.
He had recently completed filming of the new Bond movie The World is Not Enough - and had hinted he may call it a day to nurse his wife.
He first appeared in the 1963 film From Russia With Love and then went on to brief 007 played in turn by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.
The 35-year-old male driver of the other car involved was in a serious condition in hospital last night. Two passengers were slightly injured.
A fire brigade spokesman said the accident happened at a notorious blackspot on a fast stretch of road.
A police spokeswoman said: "Mr Llewelyn died of multiple injuries in hospital. There will be a standard investigation into the accident. It is a tragic, tragic loss of life."
The actor had two sons. Ivor is a senior civil servant while Justin is the British representative of a champagne house.
Despite his on-screen dexterity with gadgets, Llewelyn admitted to being a bungler in reality.
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by Dennis Barker
The Bond movies were were not an unmixed blessing for Q, 007's armourer and inventor of ingenious gadgetry. They made Desmond Llewelyn, who has died aged 85, an internationally known face, but they denied him other acting work because producers thought him too closely associated in the public's mind with Q; while the financial rewards of Bond were not nearly as great for him as the public assumed, and as they should have been. Indeed they were discreditably low, considering that the films are still making millions for their producers, directors and stars.
Llewelyn, who played Q as Bond's antithesis, academic, serious, perplexed, monkishly rapt in his own technologies, had no percentage of the 16 Bond films he appeared in. He got a daily rate, at first only about pounds 400, and was sometimes on the set for only three or four days. In the late 80s, when the producers and stars were multi-million aires, he claimed to be 'skint' and living entirely off his state pension in a dilapidated house in Bexhill.
It was true that his claim had an element of rhetoric, since the dilapidated house, inherited by his wife Pamela, was Georgian and had a swimming pool; but the implied criticism of the producers' priorities and his scant rewards as part of the human furniture of the Bond phenomenon was not without justification.
Llewelyn went to public school (Radley) and then to Rada. Before the second world war, he played in repertory companies, mainly at the Oxford Playhouse and along the south coast. He was one of the first to appear on pre-war television from Alexandra Palace. After joining the Artists Rifles in 1939, he had an uncomfortable war. His public school background and his patrician height readily suggested he was officer material, and after Sandhurst he became a lieutenant in the Welch Fusiliers in 1940. Very shortly afterwards, he was taken prisoner by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in prisoner -of-war camps. There his acting talents were not entirely wasted. At Eichstatt camp, he was in a production of Noel Coward's play Post Mortem, then unperformed professionally.
The Germans let the production go ahead, with as many stage costumes and props as could be devised, only after the entire cast and backstage crew had given an undertaking that they would use nothing to make an escape. (He did try to escape later, only to be caught in a tunnel: he was sent to an even more secure camp.)
Fifty years later, now well known as Q, Llewelyn attended the play's first professional production at the King's Head theatre in London. He recalled then how American troops had stormed into the camp, earnestly determined to de tect disguised Nazi spies. One asked Llewelyn how long he had been a prisoner and was told five years. 'The war's only been on three years,' said the US soldier suspiciously, unaware that Britain had entered the war some time ahead of America.
Llewelyn first drew serious attention to himself as a military type in a film about tank warfare, They Were Not Divided, in 1951. In 1958 he read the first of Ian Fleming's Bond novels, Casino Royale, and thought vaguely that it would make a good film. But it was not made until much later, and the first Bond movie, Dr No, featured as armourer a man prosaically called Boothroyd. The actor who played him was not available for the second Bond, From Russia With Love, and Llewelyn was offered a day's work as his successor.
In the ensuing years, Llewelyn, whose hands were in fact large and clumsy, and whose inability with technological devices made it difficult or impossible for him to use a cashpoint machine, instructed half a dozen different Bonds on how to deploy exploding attache cases, rocket-firing Aston Martins, circular-saw wristwatches and submersible or flying motor cars. To help publicise the films, he demonstrated some of these to Scout groups for 20 years, then came to the disgusted conclusion that the producers were really more interested in the girls than in the technology.
But his gentlemanly face and manner were genuine. It was no accident that his two sons went into the Foreign Office and the wine trade, both of which Llewelyn himself could easily have graced. His performances as Q may well be affectionately remembered as delightful cameos in counterpoint long after the assorted James Bonds cause uneasy titters.
Desmond Llewelyn, actor, born September 12 1914; died December 19, 1999
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Desmond Llewelyn, best known as "Q," the faithful and canny supplier of trick cars, reverse-firing guns, exploding toothpaste and other spy-baiting toys through 17 of the 19 James Bond films, died Sunday of injuries suffered in a car crash. He was 85.
Llewelyn was returning home from autographing books about his life in the town of Firle in East Sussex south of London when his car slammed head-on into another auto. Sussex police said the actor died of massive multiple internal injuries after he was airlifted to a hospital.
Three people in the other car were said to be in stable condition, and no cause was given for the accident. Llewelyn was driving alone.
Even as the actor portraying the suave British secret agent changed from Sean Connery to George Lazenby to Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton to the current Pierce Brosnan, Llewelyn endured. His most recent Bond caper, "The World is Not Enough," is now in theaters.
Aging wisely in the current film, Llewelyn is shown trying to train an apprentice--the comic John Cleese--for the day he ultimately might retire.
But in real life, the actor had no intention to ease out of the franchise that brought him his greatest fame, cinematic status and, at long last, modest wealth.
"I will play Q as long as God lets me. I have no inclination to stop," he told a newspaper shortly before the opening of the current film, which introduces Cleese, designated "R," moving into the gadget department.
Less than a month ago, Llewelyn told CBS News that he hoped to be on board for the 20th Bond installment scheduled for release in 2002.
Meanwhile, in existing footage, Llewelyn continues to devise new miracle gadgets for Bond, ever hopeful that his prize material may survive the mayhem-prone agent's deployment. In the 1997 "Tomorrow Never Dies," Llewelyn's first line to Brosnan as Bond was a cautionary "Now pay attention, 007." His last of the film, after Bond's usual field day of explosive action, was: "Oh grow up, 007."
On board from the second Bond film, "From Russia With Love" in 1963, Llewelyn resisted the director's instruction that he use a Welsh accent, although he was born in South Wales, the son of a Welsh coal mining engineer.
"My interpretation of the character was that of a toffee-nosed English," Llewelyn said. "At the risk of losing the part and with silent apologies to my native land, I launched into Q's lines using the worst Welsh accent, followed by the same in English."
The actor's version, now a part of motion picture history, won out.
Llewelyn missed only the first Bond film, "Dr. No" in 1962, and the 1973 "Live and Let Die," Moore's first outing as 007.
The Q character, formally named Maj. Boothroyd, was nicknamed "Q" for Quartermaster, a position in the British army that specializes in sciences for the military. No such character existed in the Ian Fleming novels creating James Bond, although the written Bond did receive equipment from Q Branch.
Ironically, Llewelyn said that absent the Bond cinematic magic, he was "allergic to gadgets" and couldn't even manipulate a hotel key card correctly. His comfortable home in Bexhill, England, has no computer or cell phone.
Asked repeatedly to name his favorite Bond gadget and his favorite Bond, Llewelyn hedged. Didn't have favorites, he would say, but then concede he particularly liked a grenade fountain pen from the 1995 "Golden Eye." As for the actors, he clearly liked and admired Connery and Moore, noting that Moore simply gave Bond a lighter style. He always dismissed Lazenby with "He wasn't an actor," and called Dalton "tough, the nearest to Fleming's Bond." But he rated Brosnan "terrific," credited him with reinventing Connery's 007 and bluntly predicted that Brosnan "will be the definitive Bond."
As a youth in Wales, Llewelyn envisioned careers as a clergyman or accountant. But at 17, he spent a religious retreat perusing Film Weekly magazine instead of praying. So he focused on acting, beginning as a stagehand in high school, and studied with the Royal Academy for the Dramatic Artists.
Llewelyn spent his entire career as a character actor in supporting roles and achieved fame only in his 50s as Q. His first film was the 1939 "Ask a Policeman."
When World War II intervened, Llewelyn joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers of the British army. He was captured in France and was a German prisoner of war for five years.
After the war, he toured in small repertory theater troupes before resuming his film career in 1950. In addition to a dozen or so non-Bond films, Llewelyn appeared on several television series, including 1979 episodes of PBS' "Masterpiece Theater."
The actor is survived by his wife of 61 years, Pamela, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease; two sons, Ivor and Justin, and two grandchildren.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Desmond Llewelyn, in 1971, examines a gun used by James Bond. PHOTOGRAPHER: Los Angeles Times Back to top.
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Desmond Llewelyn, a character actor best known for giving the boys their toys in the James Bond films, has died in an automobile accident just weeks after vowing he would never retire. He was 85.
Llewelyn, a delightful Welshman who was beloved by the 007 gang, died Saturday in a head-on crash near the English town of Firle, East Sussex.
He was returning home alone after a book signing. The three occupants in a second car were reported in stable condition. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
First as Major Boothroyd and then as Q, Llewelyn played the beleaguered, sarcastic scientist who came up with the fantastic gadgets that James Bond would then mangle or destroy during his escapades. Starting with From Russia With Love, Llewelyn became typecast, as he appeared in 17 of the 19 official 007 movies, missing only Dr. No and Live And Let Die.
With a new sidekick played by Monty Python star John Cleese, Llewelyn, a son of a coal mine engineer, is currently on screen in the $ 100 million hit The World Is Not Enough.
When I interviewed him last month for the film's release, Llewelyn vowed to continue indefinitely, discounting rumours Cleese would replace him in the next Bond movie, due in two years.
"It's great fun, it really is," he said. "The limit is when the Almighty wants me. As far as I can gather, I'm there as long as the producers want me and God doesn't. I don't want to retire."
Llewelyn, who made his movie debut as a ghost in the English comedy Ask A Policeman 60 years ago, was feeling his age, however. Especially because he has been watching as his wife Pamela, 85, succumbs to the ravages of Alzheimer's. "She doesn't suffer," he said, "but it's bloody unfair."
Llewelyn admitted he had also given up most of his hobbies: "I used to be a great gardener and I always decorated my house. I'm very good wallpaperer and painter and all that sort of thing. But I'm getting too old for all that now, and it exhausts me just to prune a rose."
But the old guy was still game. In the interview, he charmed everyone who spoke to him. And I remember, when I first met him before Octopussy was released in 1983, he was utterly charming then too, a Guinness-sipping sprite who regaled me with stories of his good times on the Bond films and his incompetence, in real life, with anything mechanical or technical.
He had just taken in his wife's watch for repairs. "They were absolutely horrified that Q has to take something in for repair. They seem to think that I should be able to fix anything myself. Actually, I'm not very handy at all."
He said it even more bluntly this year: "Most gadgets expire or explode as I touch them." His techno-talk in the movie about poison pens and exploding passports and bagpipes armed with bullets and the ejector seat in the famous Astin Martin of GoldenEye was just "the most frightful gibberish," he joked.
Llewelyn bantered with all five Bonds: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan. He called Connery the prototype, Moore the friendliest and Brosnan the best all-around Bond.
His own past was storied, too. In World War II, serving with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, he was captured by German soldiers in France and spent five years as a prisoner of war.
Llewelyn lived in Bexhill, East Sussex. He leaves his wife, their two sons, Ivor, 50, and Justin, 45, and two grandchildren.
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Stars of stage and screen will gather in the New Year to bid farewell to James Bond legend Desmond Llewelyn.
The 85-year-old actor, who starred as gadget inventor Q in all but two of the Bond movies, will be remembered at a special service in London.
Among those set to be invited are all five 007 stars, Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.
Mr Llewelyn was killed in a head-on car crash on the A27 near Firle, East Sussex, at 2pm on Sunday, while on his way to sign copies of the book at Drusillas Zoo Park, Alfriston. His son, Ivor, 50, who lived opposite the actor in Bexhill, said Mr Llewelyn would be commemorated at a memorial service to be held at an as yet unconfirmed London venue early in the New Year.
The ceremony is to be arranged with the help of Bond production company Eon and should be attended by a star-studded line-up of celebrities associated with Mr Llewelyn's six decades as an actor.
His son said: "We haven't really thought in detail about the invitation list yet but it must be a possibility that the Bond actors will be among those included." He added that the service was likely to be held in March.
Mr Llewelyn was airlifted to Eastbourne District General Hospital after being cut free from the wreckage of his Renault Megane following a collision with a Fiat Brava. He died three hours later of internal injuries.
Mr Llewelyn's funeral will take place at St Mary's Church, Battle, at 2.30pm on Thursday January 6. It will be followed by a private family cremation.
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