In 1962 Dr No, the first of the successful James Bond movie franchise, was released. The film, which was shot in Jamaica, made use of not only the island’s scenic backdrops, but its acting talent.

Among the Jamaicans in Dr No were Reggie Carter who has the dubious distinction of being the first person killed in the popular spy series.

Beauty queen Marguerite LeWars also made the cast as one of the famous Bond Girls.

Dr No was filmed in the Corporate Area as well as Ocho Rios. LeWars played newspaper photographer Annabel Chung alongside stars Sean Connery, Ursula Andress and Jack Lord, later of Hawaii Five-O fame. Other Jamaicans with speaking and non-speaking roles in the groundbreaking film include Eric Coverley (husband of Miss Lou), Louis Marriott, Carey Robinson, musicians Byron Lee and Count Prince Miller.

In a previous interview with the Jamaica Observer, LeWars noted that initially she was asked to lie on a bed, wrapped in a sheet and kiss a strange man, but she disapproved.

“I was disgusted… I was not involved in that stuff. So that had to be scrapped. I had very high principles,” she said.

Her principles rose to the fore once again at the film’s wrap party at Morgan’s Harbour in Port Royal, Kingston.

“The director tried to be fresh, so I slapped him in the face twice. I wasn’t interested in the casting couch… And they did a voice-over. So that’s not my voice in the movie,” she recalled.

In the film, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr Julius No, who is plotting to disrupt an American space launch from Cape Canaveral with a radio beam weapon.

Produced on a low budget, Dr No was a financial success. While the film received mixed critical reaction upon release, it gained a strong following over time and launched a genre of secret agent films that flourished in the 1960s.

The Bond franchise returned to Jamaica in 1973 for Live And Let Die, then again in 2019 for the latest instalment, No Time To Die.

For the film’s producer Barbara Broccoli, Jamaica and Bond are part of her creative DNA. In 1961, as a baby, she was on the set of Dr No, for which her father Albert was producer.

“We particularly wanted it to be in Jamaica because of the history, because of Ian Fleming and what Jamaica represented to him and why it was Jamaica he came to to create. I really feel like this is the vision of a perfect world… this is paradise,” she told the Observer.

Jamaica and Bond have been inseparable. Fleming, creator of the character, wrote the first novels about the suave spy at his Goldeneye retreat in St Mary. The property is now an upscale resort owned by music industry tycoon Chris Blackwell.

Jamaican actress Grace Jones was in A Vew To A Kill in 1985. British actress Lashana Lynch, whose parents are from Spanish Town, starred in No Time To Die.