
Richard Maibaum
Writing
Biography
The name is "Maibaum, Richard Maibaum".....the brilliant screenwriter who adapted the Ian Fleming 007 novels into the highly entertaining screenplays of nearly every James Bond film from Dr. No (1962) through to Licence to Kill (1989). Maibaum attended New York University, then studied acting at the University of Iowa. By the time he was in his late twenties, Maibaum was a well established Broadway actor and playwright. He entered films as a screenwriter in 1937, spending the war years with the army's Combat Film Division. In 1946, he joined Paramount as both screenwriter and producer, contributing to such films as The Big Clock (1948) and The Great Gatsby (1949). From advice that making films abroad was an excellent tax shelter, Maibaum formed a partnership in the 1950s with producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli This led to his involvement in the phenomenally successful James Bond series of the 1960s and 1970s and, after Ian Fleming, Maibaum has arguably been the person most responsible for shaping the image of the screen's most famous spy!
Known For

The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
Wagon Train

The United States Steel Hour is an anthology series which brought hour-long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation.
The United States Steel Hour

Agent 007 battles mysterious Dr. No, a scientific genius bent on destroying the U.S. space program. As the countdown to disaster begins, Bond must go to Jamaica, where he encounters beautiful Honey Ryder, to confront a megalomaniacal villain in his massive island headquarters.
Dr. No

Nick Charles was a private detective who married the wealthy Nora and decided to settle down and leave the good life. Unfortunately for the couple, Nick's past frequently caught up with him and got the couple involved in mystery after mystery. The series was based on the popular MGM series of movies of the 1930's starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk starred as the televison versions of Nick and Nora which ran on NBC for two seasons from 1957-59.
The Thin Man

Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox -- and obliterate the world's economy.
Goldfinger

Agent 007 is back in the second installment of the James Bond series, this time battling a secret crime organization known as SPECTRE. Russians Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen are out to snatch a decoding device known as the Lektor, using the ravishing Tatiana to lure Bond into helping them. Bond willingly travels to meet Tatiana in Istanbul, where he must rely on his wits to escape with his life in a series of deadly encounters with the enemy.
From Russia with Love

A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends James Bond to the Bahamas to once again save the world.
Thunderball

With the help of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse crime syndicate, and Draco's troubled daughter Tracy, James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Stravro Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service

James Bond is sent to investigate after a fellow “00” agent is found dead with a priceless Indian Fabergé egg. Bond follows the mystery and uncovers a smuggling scandal and a Russian General who wants to provoke a new World War.
Octopussy

A newly-developed microchip designed by Zorin Industries for the British Government that can survive the electromagnetic radiation caused by a nuclear explosion has landed in the hands of the KGB. James Bond must find out how and why. His suspicions soon lead him to big industry leader Max Zorin who forms a plan to destroy his only competition in Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake in the San Francisco Bay.
A View to a Kill

When a rich man's son is kidnapped, he cooperates with the police at first but then tries a unique tactic against the criminals.
Ransom

Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case.
The Spy Who Loved Me

A British spy ship has sunk and on board was a hi-tech encryption device. James Bond is sent to find the device that holds British launching instructions before the enemy Soviets get to it first.
For Your Eyes Only

After capturing the notorious drug lord Franz Sanchez, Bond's close friend and former CIA agent Felix Leiter is left for dead and his wife is murdered. Bond goes rogue and seeks vengeance on those responsible, as he infiltrates Sanchez's organization from the inside.
Licence to Kill

Cool government operative James Bond searches for a stolen invention that can turn the sun's heat into a destructive weapon. He soon crosses paths with the menacing Francisco Scaramanga, a hitman so skilled he has a seven-figure working fee. Bond then joins forces with the swimsuit-clad Mary Goodnight, and together they track Scaramanga to a Thai tropical isle hideout where the killer-for-hire lures the slick spy into a deadly maze for a final duel.
The Man with the Golden Gun

After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.
The Living Daylights

Diamonds are stolen only to be sold again in the international market. James Bond infiltrates a smuggling mission to find out who's guilty. The mission takes him to Las Vegas where Bond meets his archenemy Blofeld.
Diamonds Are Forever

A hapless inventor finally finds success with a flying car, which a dictator from a foreign government sets out to take for himself.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.
Foreign Correspondent

A boozy former veterinarian and a teenage orphan team together with dreams of entering a broken-down horse in the big race.