Making James Bond a Woman Was Pitched Before 1962’s ‘Dr. No’ Got Made; Ian Fleming Met Sean Connery and Said: ‘I Want an Elegant Man, Not This Roughneck’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Lashana Lynch became the first woman to own the 007 title in the 2021 James Bond tentpole “No Time to Die,” but it turns out a plan to make James Bond a woman was actually pitched over 60 years prior.

In Nicholas Shakespeare’s upcoming biography of Bond author Ian Fleming, titled “Ian Fleming: The Complete Man,” it’s confirmed that producer Gregory Ratoff floated the idea of casting Susan Hayward in a film adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel “Casino Royale.” Shakespeare writes in the biography (via IndieWire): “Since the mid-1950s, many well-known actors had been approached [to play Bond].

Gregory Ratoff had the arresting idea of having Bond played by a woman, Susan Hayward. Ian had entertained several possibilities, from Richard Burton (‘I think that Richard Burton would be by far the best James Bond’), to James Stewart (‘I wouldn’t at all mind him as Bond if he can slightly anglicise his accent’), to James Mason (‘We might have to settle for him’).” Hayward was a five-time Oscar nominee for best actress and won the prize for 1958’s “I Want to Live!” She earned nominations for 1947’s “Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman,” 1949’s “My Foolish Heart,” 1952’s “With a Song in My Heart,” and 1955’s “I’ll Cry Tomorrow,” the latter of which won her best actress honors at the Cannes Film Festival.

She also starred in the infamous “Valley of the Dolls.” Legendary screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. spoke to Variety back in 2012 and claimed at the time that Ratoff was interested in Hayward because “frankly, we thought [Bond] was kind of unbelievable and as I recall, even kind of stupid.