Meet the Real James Bond

Who was the Real James Bond?

He was not the undercover agent that everyone knew him to be, nor did he have a license to kill. The real James Bond was from Philadelphia and was born on January 4, 2022. He lived quite the ordinary life as an ornithologist, someone who studies and is an expert on birds until someone decided to make his name famous.

While born in Philadelphia, James lived most of his childhood in New Hampshire and England. People would say he developed a Philadelphian, British accent. He was educated at Cambridge and returned to the states to pursue a career in banking, but it didn’t last long. He could not resist his interests in the outdoors and found himself quitting banking for science and natural history. Soon after he went on an expedition in the Amazon to explore and collect biological specimens with Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences.

The expedition sparked his interest in working as an ornithologist at the Academy but interestingly enough, he had no formal training nor a specialized degree that qualified him. Nonetheless, working at the museum made him an authority in his specialty. He published a book on the bird species in the Caribbean called “Birds of the West Indies” which was used as an ultimate guide of the time. Outside of that published work, which was the main reason for his international fame, he was very accomplished. He published dozens of papers, and book guides. Also, he won numerous medals and awards.

In 1961, Bond was reading a review in the newspaper on a very different Bond. One of handguns, women and spies, unlike his own. However, he soon realized that Bond was the hero of a new novel written by Ian Fleming. James’ wife Mary wrote to Fleming jokingly accusing him of stealing her husband's name for his wild character. Fleming, while living in Jamaica, responded and said Bond’s work, “Birds of the West Indies,'' was his bird bible and found inspiration in the author’s name. Fleming started his work on the new spy novel and wanted his main character to be an unassuming name yet masculine name. 

Fleming charmingly let the Bonds know that in exchange for his theft with stealing the name, he would allow them to use his name for anything they may wish. He suggested that maybe it would be naming him after a bird species he found “horrible.” Additionally, Fleming invited the Bonds over to his house in Jamaica which they obliged a few years later. Ian Fleming gifted James Bond a copy of his novel, You Only Live Twice, inscribed with “To the real James Bond from the thief of his identity.”

Up until his death at the age of 89, James Bond, the real one, experienced some inconveniences with who was named after him. It was said that he received many prank calls asking for 007 over the years. Additionally, he was stopped at the airport because officers thought his passport was fake. He was also refused at the bank when trying to cash checks in his name. Nevertheless, James Bond was a good sport, and while not a super spy in his real life, he ended his life with a name made famous.