- Frederick Stafford, Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117 (US: OSS 117: Mission For A Killer), France-Italy, 1965. Kerwin Matthews had become too expensive for French pockets after two OSS 117 films about Jean Bruce’s secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath. Réalisateur André Hunebelle (surprisingly old at 68 for modern spy romps) looked over other Americans moonlighting in Europe – Clark, Lex Barker, Richard Harrison, George Nader – and chose the wooden Frederick Stafford when Ray Danton was a better actor and Sean Flynn better looking. Certainly, the Czech-born Stafford was the only OSS 117 to work for Hitchcock – proving just as wooden in Topaze, 1969. And to think, Hitch once thought John Gavin wooden in Psycho.
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Roger Browne, Operation Poker, Italy-Spain, 1965. Last minute change of 007-wannabe, Glenn Foster, aka Agent OS-14, in the dull espionage romp far too occupied with Bond gadgets. Like a car with an explosive rear end – for getting rid of muderous passengers. And infra-red contact lenses for seeing through walls. Beat that, Mr Q! (Brown and Clark both hailed from Ohio, and Clark also copied Bond as Agent FX 18 and Agent 077).
Birth year: 1927Death year: 2009Other name: Casting Calls: 2