Raymond Chandler was a fan of the James Bond novels and urged Fleming to continue writing them in the mid 1950s.
According to the National Geographic (CNN and BBC too), he patterned James Bond after Dusko Popov, a Serbian double agent nicknamed Tricycle. Popov was a worthy predecessor to the fictional spy James Bond. He was noted as a womanizer and was dating many famous actresses (some of them were Hollywood stars). He also stayed at the best hotels, ate at top restaurants, visited smart casinos, and was a bon vivant. While Fleming worked in British naval intelligence during WWII, he was detailed to trail this charismatic spy who eventually became a double agent for the British (among other intelligence work he provided an information to the FBI that the Japanese were planning to attack Pearl Harbor).
As a member of British Intelligence during WWII, he worked with the American OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the predecessor to the CIA. He contributed his experience and expertise to the OSS and later helped the Americans set up the CIA.
Based the character of James Bond on real-life spy Sidney Reilly.
Cousin of Christopher Lee.
Distantly related by marriage to author Leslie Charteris.
Featured in the novel "James Bond: The Unauthorized Biography of 007" by John Pearson. This novel, which is considered part of the Bond canon by some, suggests that Bond was real and that Fleming wrote stories based on Bond's real-life adventures as a strange way of hiding classified information "in plain sight."
Film stars who were an influence on his vision of James Bond included David Niven, Rex Harrison, Cary Grant, and Hoagy Carmichael.
Fleming was a huge fan of Studebakers. One of his last cars was a Studebaker Avanti.
Fleming's health had never been strong, and it was not helped by his lifestyle. At 38, complaining of chest pains, he had informed a startled doctor that he consumed 70 cigarettes and a bottle of gin a day. In 1961 he had a massive heart attack, which was followed by a series of increasingly debilitating illnesses, including a severe chest infection and pleurisy. Finally, on 11 August 1964 - the night before his son's 12th birthday - he collapsed. He died the next morning on his son's birthday, 12 August 1964.
Fleming's Scrapbook was sold at a charity auction in December 1992 by his step-daughter, Fionn O'Neill. It was auctioned at Sotheby's in New Bond Street which was used as a location in the movie Octopussy (1983). Reportedly, it was acquired for £30,000 by Fleming's nieces Lucy, Kate and Nichol. Proceeds went to the London Library.
Half-brother of cellist Amaryllis Fleming.
He died on his son's birthday (12th of August 1964). Casper died of a drug overdose in Jamaica in 1974. Anne survived them both, and died in 1981. Her son by her first marriage, Raymond Arthur O'Neill, is now the 4th Baron O'Neill.
He got the name "James Bond" from a real-life ornithologist from Philadelphia who was called James Bond. Fleming had a copy of Bond's book, "The Birds of the West Indies", and took a liking to that name.
He initially objected to the casting of Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr. No (1962) because he felt that Connery was too "unrefined". He later changed his mind after seeing Connery's performance in the finished film.
He suffered a coronary thrombosis in 1961, which he admitted was a result of smoking seventy cigarettes and drinking a bottle of gin a day.
He was a bird-watcher and he named "James Bond" after an ornithologist of the same name (See James Bond) whose book he had read. He borrowed the name because it was the "dullest" name he could think of. The book title "Goldeneye" is also a birding reference, as goldeneyes are a type of duck.
His elder brother Peter Fleming (a travel writer of some note in the 1930s) was married until his death to actress Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter (1945)). His nieces Kate Fleming (now Grimond) and Lucy Fleming (also an actress) are now his literary heirs.
His home in Jamaica was named "Goldeneye" and was the source of the name of the 1995 James Bond movie.
His James Bond novels and story elements were originally used in the films, beginning with Dr. No (1962). Until Casino Royale (2006), the last James Bond movie to use elements from Fleming's stories was Licence to Kill (1989).