Felix Leiter

Felix Leiter
James Bond character
The many faces of Felix Leiter: from top-left: Jack Lord, Cec Linder, Rik Van Nutter, Norman Burton from bottom-left: David Hedison, John Terry, David Hedison, Jeffrey Wright.
First appearance	Casino Royale (1953)
Last appearance	Carte Blanche (2011)
Created by	Ian Fleming
Portrayed by	Michael Pate (as "Clarence Leiter") (1954) Jack Lord (1962) Cec Linder (1964) Rik Van Nutter (1965) Norman Burton (1971) David Hedison (1973 & 1989) Bernie Casey (1983) John Terry (1987) Jeffrey Wright (2006–2008)
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	CIA operative Private investigator
Spouse(s)	Della Leiter (nee Churchill) (wife, deceased)
Children	Cedar Leiter (daughter)
Nationality	American

Felix Leiter is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. In both, Leiter works for the CIA and assists Bond in his various adventures. In further novels Leiter joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency and, in the film Licence to Kill, he transfers to the DEA. The name "Felix" comes from the middle name of Fleming's friend Ivor Bryce, while the name "Leiter" was the surname of Fleming's friend Marion Oates Leiter Charles, then wife of Thomas Leiter.

In the 1954 Climax! television adaptation of Casino Royale, which featured Barry Nelson as CIA officer Jimmy Bond, his opposite number became British secret agent Clarence Leiter, played by Australian actor Michael Pate.

Novels

Ian Fleming

Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA ally and friend, played a part in six of the Fleming novels; he is introduced in Casino Royale as being thin, tall, about thirty-five years old and a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps who was working with the Joint Intelligence Staff of NATO. Fleming named the character after two of his American friends: "Felix" was Ivar Bryce's middle name, whilst Tommy Leiter was a mutual friend. Academic Kerstin Jütting describes Leiter as "a cool and quiet no-nonsense character who knows 007's strengths and weaknesses well".

Leiter is Bond's saviour in Casino Royale, providing him with 32 million francs when Bond has been cleaned out by SMERSH paymaster 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 shows that in his early twenties, Leiter wrote a few pieces on Dixieland jazz for the New York Amsterdam News. 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 US matter was a breach of the CIA's charter, as laid out in the National Security Act of 1947.

After the shark attack, Leiter returned in Diamonds Are Forever with a hook for his missing hand and a prosthetic leg; as he had lost his gun hand, he was no longer with the CIA, but employed as a private detective by Pinkertons Detective Agency, although he was on the reserve of the CIA and was recalled for Thunderball and The Man with the Golden Gun. Fleming had flown to the US in August 1954 to research the background to Diamonds Are Forever; his friend Ernest Cuneo introduced him to a rich socialite, William Woodward, Jr., who drove a Studillac—a Studebaker with a powerful Cadillac engine. According to Bond scholar Henry Chancellor, "the speed and comfort of it impressed Ian, and he shamelessly appropriated this car" for Leiter to drive in the novel.

Continuation authors

After John Gardner took over writing the James Bond novel series, Leiter made an occasional appearance. The novel For Special Services introduces his daughter, Cedar Leiter, who is also a CIA officer (and briefly Bond's romantic conquest), while in Win, Lose or Die, U.S. President George H. W. Bush (making a cameo appearance in the novel) mentions working with Leiter in his previous capacity as CIA director.

Leiter also makes appearances in Raymond Benson's continuation Bond novels, The Facts of Death, in which he helps Bond substantially with a mission in Texas, and Doubleshot. Benson has Leiter sometimes making use of an electric wheelchair, in reference to the deterioration of his legs following the shark attack, but Leiter is still capable of walking with the aid of a cane. In later novels, Leiter has also found a Hispanic girlfriend, Manuela.

In 2008, Sebastian Faulks included a crippled Felix Leiter in his new Bond novel Devil May Care. In the story, Bond is captured in Iran by Dr. Julius Gorner, who plans on using his secret weapon, an ekranoplan, to start a nuclear war between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. Leiter drops his work at Pinkerton's and helps Bond and MI6 contact Darius send a message back to London to order an airstrike on Gorner's ekranoplan. In a shoot-out with double agent JD Silver, Darius successfully calls in the airstrike at the cost of his own life, and Leiter survives only thanks to the timely arrival of Hamid, his taxi driver.

In the 2011 novel, Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver, Leiter assists Bond in tracking down the villainous Severan Hydt in Dubai.

Television

Michael Pate: "Clarence Leiter" from the British Secret Service.

Michael Pate (1954)

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". 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.

Films

In the films, Leiter is a CIA officer in all appearances except in Licence to Kill, in which he works alongside the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The cinematic Bond and Leiter meet for the first time in Dr. No, the first Bond film. Eon Productions had originally planned to film Thunderball, where Leiter featured prominently, as the first film in the series. However, the controversy over Thunderball led the filmmakers to film Dr. No instead and so the character of Leiter was added to the novel's plot.

The film version of Live and Let Die does not contain the sequence with the shark, and Leiter survives intact to help Bond again. Leiter's confrontation with the shark would later be used in Licence to Kill where he is fed to a shark by the villain Franz Sanchez in revenge for Leiter's role in temporarily capturing him. The film version of Leiter loses only one leg at the knee to the shark, although one arm is seriously injured. Although severely mutilated, Leiter would still remain alive. His new wife, Della, is raped and murdered by Sanchez's henchmen. These atrocities would send Bond on a quest for revenge, which forms the film's central plot.

In the Pierce Brosnan Bond films, the character Jack Wade appeared as the regular representative of the CIA, ostensibly because the producers did not want to feature a disabled Leiter. It is hinted in GoldenEye that he is friends with Leiter, though Leiter is never mentioned by name. Leiter appeared in the 2006 adaptation of Casino Royale. As the film is a reboot, Leiter once again works for the CIA with no mention of the shark encounter.

There is no visual continuity between Leiter's film appearances. In Dr. No he is depicted as being somewhat suave and mysterious and roughly the same age as Bond; the very next appearance of the character in Goldfinger depicted him as middle-aged and grey-haired and a more typical American policeman type or an American counterpart of M; in the very next film, he was once again depicted as being about Bond's age and more physically active than the Goldfinger Leiter. Also, while usually portrayed by white actors, Leiter has on three occasions (one in a non-Eon production, twice in Eon productions) been portrayed by African American actors.

According to screenwriter Richard Maibaum, it was Jack Lord's demand for co-star billing, a bigger role and more money to reprise the Felix Leiter role in Goldfinger that led the producers to recast the role.

Dr. No

Felix Leiter is sent to Jamaica to work with British agent John Strangways to investigate radio jamming of NASA rockets. Strangways is murdered by henchmen of the mysterious and secretive Dr. No and Leiter enlists the aid of Jamaican fisherman Quarrel to investigate Dr. No's island, Crab Key. When Bond arrives in Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of Strangways, Leiter and Quarrel assist him in his pursuit of Dr. No.

Goldfinger

Leiter is sent to tell James Bond not only about Auric Goldfinger, but also what M wants Bond to do with Goldfinger. Felix interrupts Bond while he is being massaged by Dink. They arrange to have dinner for a better briefing, but Bond reschedules to breakfast as he is enjoying time with Goldfinger's moll Jill Masterson. When she is killed, Leiter is asked to come to Bond's room.

Leiter calls M, telling him Bond is going to Kentucky. M asks him to follow and keep an eye on Bond but not to "drop" in on him. Leiter and one of his allies tail Bond (using the homing device in Bond's shoe) to a farm, where they spy on him. When Bond takes his homer out and puts it in the car of Oddjob and Mr. Solo, Leiter follows. Oddjob destroys the car and Mr. Solo and the homer device and Leiter must return to the farm, fearing Bond is dead. After spying on the farm, he sees that Bond is in apparent control of the situation, but does not know that Bond is actually being held captive.

On the day of "Operation Grand Slam", Leiter is warned in advance by a reformed Pussy Galore of Goldfinger's plan, and the CIA changes the contents of the gas canisters in Pussy's airplanes from nerve agent to a harmless gas. Felix then waits for Goldfinger to arrive at Fort Knox, faking death along with the stationed garrison and, when the plot is put into action, these forces and Bond manage to stop Goldfinger. Leiter is last seen waving his friend off on a private plane to Washington, to receive by the President (and then noting in alarm that the plane is crashing).

Thunderball

Felix Leiter is sent to the Bahamas to investigate two stolen nuclear missiles with Ml6 agent and old friend James Bond. Felix follows Bond several times without him noticing, and when he goes to Bond’s room, Bond opens the door and punches him. Bond quickly brings him inside and tells him to be quiet while he deals with an intruder in his house. Bond later apologises for punching him. Felix and Bond investigate Emilio Largo, who has stolen the weapons. Felix later saves Bond when he is trapped and helps him find the missing plane.

Diamonds Are Forever

Felix Leiter appears, undercover, as a customs inspector who enables Bond to smuggle in a cache of diamonds, using the corpse of Peter Franks (a smuggler who had died while battling Bond in an earlier sequence). When James arranges for the exchange of diamonds to Tiffany Case (hidden in a stuffed animal), Leiter and his men lose her in a parking lot. Leiter later escorts James to a remote hideout where hotel magnate Willard Whyte is being kept. Leiter grows flustered when James subdues Whyte's two bodyguards, 'Bambi' and 'Thumper' (two athletic women who attack their opponents with kicks), by dunking them in a pool, complaining about Bond "giving breast-stroke lessons" while trying to find Whyte. Leiter then assists Bond and Whyte in tracking down the satellite operating centre and makes another appearance on one of the helicopters leading the assault on the centre. He is finally seen with Whyte bidding farewell to Bond and Tiffany on their cruise at the end of the film.

Live and Let Die

Leiter acts as the CIA liaison as Bond operates in New York City, investigating the deaths of British agents who were the victims of Mr. Big. When Bond arrives in New York, Leiter wants some information about Big's henchman Whisper, who had killed Bond's taxi driver. In this film, Leiter and other CIA officers also operate out of a hotel room overlooking the residence of Dr. Kananga, the dictator of a small island called San Monique. Leiter, while investigating Kananga for corruption in the United States, goes with Bond to a Fillet of Soul restaurant, under the guise of finding out more information about Mr. Big, a notorious drug dealer. However, Bond is removed from the restaurant and captured by Mr. Big by a descending floor, and Leiter appears to have no idea what happened to Bond. When Bond later escapes, Leiter assists him in handing him a series of bombs to explode the poppy fields that Mr. Big/Kananga is growing. He's last seen in the film escorting Bond and Solitaire to their train.

Never Say Never Again

In this non-Eon Productions remake of Thunderball, Leiter aids Bond in an attack on the underground fortress of villain Maximillian Largo. In this film, the character was played by Bernie Casey, which marks the only time Leiter was portrayed as an African-American until the re-launch of the franchise with Casino Royale in 2006.

The Living Daylights

Felix Leiter is investigating Brad Whitaker in Tangier, trying to determine why Whitaker had not made any arms deals after receiving a huge sum of money from General Leonid Pushkin. He sets up cameras around Whitaker's estate to spy on him. When Bond comes to Tangier, and after Bond (with Pushkin's connivance) fakes Pushkin's assassination, Leiter captures Bond using two girls to seduce him; they hold him at gunpoint until he realises they are working for Leiter. Bond and Felix discuss Pushkin and Whitaker. Later he is seen when Bond was breaking into Whitaker's house; Leiter helps Bond enter the house undetected. Unlike most recent interpretations of Leiter (and the one to follow), Leiter is depicted here as young and something of a ladies man, more in keeping with the youth-oriented portrayal of the character in Dr. No and Thunderball.

Licence to Kill

Felix Leiter is going to be married, to Della Churchill, but on the way his friends from the DEA catch up with him. They tell him that drug lord Franz Sanchez is nearby. Felix insists that they go despite his wedding. Felix and Bond, leaving Sharkey to explain to Della, go by helicopter to a house in the Bahamas. When they land, Felix tells Bond to stay in the helicopter, while he and several DEA officers find Sanchez. Sanchez's men try and distract Felix by shooting at him and his officers. Bond is brought in the action, saying "if I don't get you back to the wedding, I am a dead man for sure." Felix and Bond can’t find Sanchez but realise he is escaping in an airplane, so quickly get in the helicopter and chase. Bond helps Leiter get Sanchez and both parachute down to the wedding, where Leiter and Della wed.

Later, when Sanchez is traveling from the Bahamas to a prison, Ed Killifer, an agent, betrays his friend Felix and helps allow Sanchez to escape for US$2 million. This indirectly allows Sanchez to find Leiter.

Leiter and Della are enjoying their post-wedding party, cutting the cake, opening presents and giving Bond a present (a lighter which becomes crucial at the end of the film). Leiter and Della say good-bye to Bond and go inside. When they enter their bedroom, Perez and Braun are waiting for them. Leiter insists they let Della go but is knocked out from behind by Dario. The three then (it is implied) rape Della before killing her, they then bring Leiter to Sanchez at Milton Krest's marine lab. Leiter realises that Killifer has betrayed them and thinks that Sanchez is going to kill him. Sanchez then feeds Leiter to the shark. He is brought back to his house for James Bond to find with a note reading, "He disagreed with something that ate him" (Note: this is all from Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die). Leiter is rushed to hospital and, after weeks in intensive care, recovers with his damaged arm saved, though he has lost his left leg.

Bond goes after Sanchez, nominally losing his licence to kill in the process when he resigns from MI6 rather than follow M's orders to drop the matter. Much of the plot of the film is based around 007's dogged pursuit of and revenge on Sanchez, whom he tricks into distrusting his own people and eventually kills, after destroying the drug lord's empire and, finally, revealing the reason for his vengeance. Leiter is last seen at the end of a telephone conversation with Bond, who promises to come and see him soon. He looks grave, but forces a smile when a nurse plumps his pillows, signing off by telling Bond that M wants him back.

Casino Royale

In the reboot of the James Bond series, Felix Leiter is re-introduced after 17 years as working for the CIA against Le Chiffre. He is entered in the major poker game that Le Chiffre must win in order to recoup his clients' funds.

When Bond is knocked out of the tournament, Felix reveals himself to him on a stairwell as "a brother from Langley," and proposes a plan for Bond to win against Le Chiffre. He says that he is "bleeding chips" and will not last much longer against Le Chiffre. Felix stops Bond's attempt to assassinate Le Chiffre and gives him $5 million to buy back into the tournament. In exchange, Felix wants the CIA to take Le Chiffre in if Bond wins. Bond agrees.

Leiter is knocked out of the poker game not too long after, but Bond wins the final hand (and with it a $115 million pot). It is stated later that Leiter makes contact with Le Chiffre and plans to extract him at dawn, but this is revealed to be a plot by Le Chiffre to kidnap Vesper Lynd.

Quantum of Solace

Leiter appears again to help Bond in Quantum of Solace, working as a senior officer under Greggory Beam, CIA Section Chief of South America. Leiter and Beam are tasked with working with the film's villain, Dominic Greene, to secure oil sources in South America for the United States. Leiter disagrees with the agency's decision to work with Greene, and secretly meets with Bond in a bar in Bolivia to warn him about a CIA black ops team coming to kill him. As Bond escapes the bar, Leiter gives him Greene's rendezvous point with his Bolivian clients, allowing him to intercept Greene and put a stop to his plans. After meeting Bond, however, Leiter talks to Beam and confirms that he passed along the message he was assigned to (though whether he actually did is left ambiguous). It is revealed at the end of the film, after Greene's death, that Beam was fired and Leiter has become the CIA's Section Chief of South America, a significant promotion.

Actors

While Leiter appears in a number of Bond films, he has almost always been played by different actors in each, and hence has not achieved the memorable status of other Bond characters such as M, Q and Miss Moneypenny. Leiter appears in nine Eon films, one non-Eon film and one television production, played by nine different actors, who vary in age, physical characteristics and race.

David Hedison and Jeffrey Wright are the only actors to play Leiter more than once; Hedison was recast in Licence to Kill having previously played the role in Live and Let Die. The producers decided that due to the events of LTK, with the entire plot being driven by Leiter's crippling and Bond's resultant quest for revenge, the producers would need someone who was already established in the role to resonate with the audience, even though Hedison had last played the part 16 years earlier. Wright became the first actor to play Leiter in consecutive films when he appeared in Casino Royale and its direct sequel, Quantum of Solace.

Actors who have played Felix Leiter in the films (in order of appearance):

Eon Productions films

• Jack Lord (Dr. No - 1962)
• Cec Linder (Goldfinger - 1964)
• Rik Van Nutter (Thunderball - 1965)
• Norman Burton (Diamonds Are Forever - 1971)
• David Hedison (Live and Let Die & Licence to Kill - 1973 & 1989)
• John Terry (The Living Daylights - 1987)
• Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale & Quantum of Solace - 2006 & 2008)

Non-Eon film

• Bernie Casey (Never Say Never Again - 1983)

Television

• Michael Pate (Casino Royale - 1954) - as 'Clarence Leiter'

Reception

A 2002 feature article in the Styles section of The New York Times compared Leiter's relationship with Bond to that of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall.

See also

• Jack Wade
• Damian Falco

Bibliography

• Amis, Kingsley (1966). The James Bond Dossier. London: Pan Books. OCLC 752401390. 
• Barnes, Alan; Hearn, Marcus (1997). Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: the Unofficial James Bond Film Companion. Batsford Books. ISBN 978-0-7134-8182-2. 
• Bennett, Tony; Woollacott, Janet (1987). Bond and beyond: the political career of a popular hero. Oxford: Macmillan Education. ISBN 978-0-3332-8620-3. 
• Benson, Raymond (1988). The James Bond Bedside Companion. London: Boxtree Ltd. ISBN 1-85283-234-7. 
• Black, Jeremy (2005). The politics of James Bond: from Fleming's novel to the big screen. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-6240-9. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g4-sFrU8Xw0C&lpg=PA101&dq=Clarence%20Leiter&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Caplen, Robert (2010). Shaken & Stirred: The feminism of James Bond. Bloomington, Indiana: Xlibris. ISBN 978-1-4535-1282-1. 
• Chancellor, Henry (2005). James Bond: The man and his world. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6815-2. 
• Chapman, James (2009). Licence to Thrill: A cultural history of the James Bond films. New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-515-9. 
• Comentale, Edward P; Watt, Stephen; Willman, Skip (2005). Ian Fleming & James Bond: the cultural politics of 007. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21743-1. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NpkbHkuxYTUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Cork, John; Stutz, Collin (2007). James Bond encyclopedia. London: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 978-1-4053-3427-3. 
• Dunbar, Brian (2001). Goldfinger. London: Longman. ISBN 978-0-5824-5249-7. 
• Griswold, John (2006). Ian Fleming's James Bond: annotations and chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond stories. AuthorHouse. ISBN 1-4259-3100-6. http://books.google.com/?id=uariyzldrJwC&lpg=PA2&dq=Ian%20Fleming's%20James%20Bond%3A%20Annotations%20And%20Chronologies%20For%20Ian%20Fleming's%20Bond%20Stories&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Jütting, Kerstin (2007). "Grow Up, 007!" – James Bond over the decades: formula vs. innovation. GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3-638-85372-9. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MzuVat9N7bQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Lane, Andy; Simpson, Paul (2002). The Bond Files: An Unofficial Guide to the World's Greatest Secret Agent. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0712-4. 
• Lindner, Christoph (2009). The James Bond Phenomenon: a Critical Reader. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6541-5. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=x9-1QY5boUsC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Lycett, Andrew (1996). Ian Fleming. London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-1-85799-783-5. 
• Macintyre, Ben (2008). For Your Eyes Only. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7475-9527-4. 
• McKay, Sinclair (2008). The man with the golden touch: how the Bond films conquered the world. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-355-9. 
• Pearson, John (1966). The Life of Ian Fleming. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-02082-X. 
• Pearson, John (2008). James Bond: The Authorised Biography. Random House. ISBN 978-0-09-950292-0. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WdBHOXLA6hYC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Pfeiffer, Lee; Worrall, Dave (1998). The essential Bond. London: Boxtree Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7522-2477-0. 
• Rubin, Steven Jay (2003). The complete James Bond movie encyclopedia. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-141246-8. 
• Simpson, Paul (2002). The rough guide to James Bond. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-142-5. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BikCz7XZijEC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Smith, Jim; Lavington, Stephen (2002). Bond films. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0709-4. 
• West, Nigel (2010). Historical dictionary of Ian Fleming's world of intelligence: fact and fiction. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-2896-3. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=myjQ9kqDFZwC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false.