My grandfather worked on Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965), two of the earlier movies starring Sean Connery as James Bond. He may have worked on others, but these are the only ones we have photographic evidence for.

GOLDFINGER (Guy Hamilton, 1964) - my grandfather built the model of the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox used in the film. This is the only photograph we have from this production (picture shown at right).

THUNDERBALL (Terence Young, 1965) - Much of the location filming for Thunderball took place in the Bahamas, in and around Nassau. The photos below feature the Vulcan Bomber mockup, and also what we believe to be the Disco Volante. The Vulcan appears to have been life-size, and featured in the film when it was hijacked by SPECTRE agents, who stole two atomic bombs to hold NATO to ransom. Click on the photos to see larger versions.

Grateful thanks to Mark Thomas for working some Photoshop magic on the colour photo scans! Some of the prints have not survived the years too well, suffering burnout and general colour issues.

Related links:

• Diving on the Submerged Wrecks of Thunderball and Never Say Never Again - fascinating article on a present-day visit to the remains of the Vulcan Bomber mockup, using some of our photos
• Absolutely James Bond

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Last update November 29th 2010.