Felix Leiter

Lore & Background

Felix Leiter, James Bond's CIA ally and friend, played a part in six of the Ian Fleming novels; he is introduced in Casino Royale as being thin, tall, about 35 years old and a former U.S. Marine who was working with the Joint Intelligence Staff of NATO. Kerstin Jütting describes Leiter as "a cool and quiet no-nonsense character who knows 007's strengths and weaknesses well". Physically, Fleming describes Leiter in Casino Royale: "a mop of straw-coloured hair lent his face a boyish look which closer examination contradicted". Leiter is Bond's saviour in Casino Royale, acting as a courier for the British Secret Service to provide Bond with 32 million francs when Bond has been cleaned out by Soviet agent Le Chiffre, calling it "Marshall aid". Media historian James Chapman notes that Bond's relationship with Leiter represented the Special Relationship between Britain and America, although the American Leiter is in the subordinate position to the British Bond. Academic Jeremy Black agrees, although points out that the Bond and Leiter relationship suggested "a far smoother working of the Anglo-American alliance than was in fact the case." Academic and writer Kingsley Amis, in his exploration of Bond in The James Bond Dossier, considered that this view of Leiter was partly because of Fleming's writing, noting that "Leiter, such a nonentity as a piece of characterization ... he, the American, takes orders from Bond, the Britisher, and that Bond is constantly doing better than he". Bond scholars Bennett and Woollacott note that although the two men share adventures, it is Bond who leads, not Leiter. Leiter's role is to "suppl[y] Bond with technical support and hardware, add ... muscle where needed and money". Fleming's second novel, Live and Let Die, reveals that in his early twenties, Leiter wrote a few pieces on Dixieland jazz for the New York Amsterdam News. He is kidnapped by the novel's villain, Mr. Big, who feeds him to a great white shark. Bond scholar John Griswold notes that in the original draft of the story, Fleming killed Leiter off in the shark attack; when Naomi Burton, Fleming's US agent with Curtis Brown, protested about the death of the character, Fleming relented and Leiter lived, albeit missing an arm and half a leg. Espionage scholar Rupert Allason, writing as Nigel West, noted that Leiter's involvement in a domestic U.S. matter was a breach of th

In Their Own Story

Felix stands at the window, watching the Potomac catch the last grey light of a pre-dawn that hasn't quite arrived yet. His phone buzzes — a secure line, a British number. He doesn't need to ask who it is. "I've got the satellite telemetry," he says before the other end can speak. "And I've got your clearance for the facility in St. Petersburg. You have six hours before this stops being a conversation I can make on this phone." A pause. The satellite dish outside rotates slowly, indifferent. Felix pockets the phone, straightens his tie, and walks back toward the briefing room where three analysts are already waiting with coffee gone cold. The world is about to get a lot more complicated, and someone has to make sure the paperwork is in order first.

Reader's Guide

The first screen interpretation of the Leiter character was in the 1954 CBS one-hour television adventure "Casino Royale", broadcast as part of the dramatic anthology series Climax Mystery Theater, which ran between October 1954 and June 1958. For the American audience the Bond character from Casino Royale was re-cast as an American agent—"Card Sense" Jimmy Bond, played by Barry Nelson—described as working for "Combined Intelligence", supported by the British agent, Clarence Leiter; "thus was the Anglo-American relationship depicted in the book reversed for American consumption", according to Jeremy Black. Leiter, who was an agent for Station S, was a combination of the novel's Felix Leiter and René Mathis and was played by the Australian actor Michael Pate. In the Eon Productions series of films, Leiter has been portrayed by Jack Lord, Cec Linder, Rik Van Nutter, Norman Burton, David Hedison, John Terry, and Jeffrey Wright; in the independent production Never Say Never Again, the part was played by Bernie Casey. Leiter has also appeared in the video game 007 Legends voiced by Demetri Goritsas. The source article does not mention any appearance in the 1995 film GoldenEye or the 1997 Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007.

Did You Know?

• The name "Felix" comes from the middle name of Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce.
• The name "Leiter" was the surname of Fleming's friend Marion Oates Leiter Charles.
• In the original draft of Live and Let Die, Fleming killed Leiter off in the shark attack, but relented after a protest from his US agent.
• Leiter's car in Diamonds Are Forever was based on a Studillac owned by William Woodward Jr.