For Your Eyes Only: casting

John Glen in “For My Eyes Only – My Life with James Bond.”

“Debbie [McWilliams – the casting director] found Michael Gothard, whom we cast as the assassin, Locque. Michael was a captivating actor, perfect to play an inscrutable and ruthless killer. He suggested that Locque should wear the thick octagonal glasses that somehow made him appear even more sinister.”

In correspondence, John Glen says: “I cast Michael Gothard in "For Your Eyes Only" and he contributed many ideas on this, my first effort as a Bond director. He suggested the distinctive octagonal eye glasses which gave him a sinister look.

I remember him as a very pleasant person as well as a fine actor. Also his beautiful wife who made a brief appearance in Cortina ..."¹

Profiles of the character Michael Gothard played, Emile Leopold Locque can be found here.

¹ No record has been found of Michael having been married, but M.T., to whom John Glen refers as Michael's wife, is also mentioned by Sean McCormick, who met her in 1981, when he first met Michael.

For Your Eyes Only: filming

Filming started on 15 Sept 1980, at Villa Sylva in the hills above Corfu town. The first scene filmed was the one at the poolside, where Locque (Michael Gothard) had been sent to pay off a hired assassin.

The crew spent 5 weeks in Corfu. The beach buggy scene, in which Locque killed Contessa Lisl (Cassandra Harris), was filmed in the south west of the island.

They then moved to central Greece, shooting in the Meteora mountains and the town of Kalambaka. This may have been where Bond (Roger Moore) pushes Locque’s car off the cliff.

After that, they worked at Pinewood Studios for three months.

Just after New Year’s Day in 1981, filming moved to Northern Italy, to the exclusive ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo in the southern Alps, known for its ski-ranges, scenery, and après-ski scene.

Scenes where Bond is stalked by Locque were filmed in the town, outside the Miramonti Hotel, and on the three-stage cable-car ride at the top of Tofana Mountain.

Locque's henchmen then pursue Bond on bobsleds and snowmobiles.

According to JoBlo “the action scenes are excellent, boasting some of the best stunt work in the series – especially the sequence where Bond skies down a bobsled run” but that “tragically, one of the stuntmen died filming this sequence.”

On set photo

Michael Gothard rehearses part of the beach buggy scene with Roger Moore.