Jews played an important role in choreographing James Bond’s transition and transformation from the page to the screen, where he became of the most iconic figures in Western popular culture. Renowned film producer Harry Saltzman (born
Herschel Saltzman) optioned the film rights to the Bond stories after reading “Goldfinger” in 1961. Together with Albert R. Broccoli, he formed Eon Productions. Under its auspices, the Bond film franchise, particularly in its early days, employed much Jewish creative input both in front of and behind the camera (Monty Norman, Ken Adam, Richard Maibaum, Irvin Kershner,
Sam Mendes, Joseph Wiseman, Steven Berkoff). In adapting Bond, these Jewish creatives took Fleming’s more human, flawed and frail character and turned him into a sexy super-agent stud (he sleeps with far more women in the films than he does in
the books) who rarely fails to deliver. At the same time, they removed the explicit references to Jews that appeared in the novels of Bond’s creator, British writer Ian Fleming. This paper will explore the reasons behind this transition, as well as its
results. In so doing, it will present a counter-reading to argue that, given the heavy Jewish involvement and fascination with Bond, it is possible to read him as we do Superman. Scholars and other observers have long recognized that Clark Kent (born Kal-El) was a form of Jewish wish fulfilment on the part of his creators. Perhaps in the transition from the page to the screen, James Bond was likewise made into a Jewish icon even as the films were purged of explicitly Jewish content. To apply Jewish novelist Michael Chabon’s words about Clark Kent to James Bond: “only a Jew would pick a name like that for himself.”