george lazenby"Perhaps I should have signed for all seven after all..." They said he wasn't much cop as Bond...but O.H.M.S.S still has some the best stunts in the series.

Born: September 5 1939
Where: Queanbeyan, Australia.

The one-time highest-paid male model in the world is known for his single appearance as James Bond after Sean Connery quit the role.

Lazenby, an expert skier and former car salesman, played 007 in the 1969 Bond outing On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

"I'm still waiting for that one right, perfect role, to set things right. I'd really love that chance."

His subsequent acting career did not flourish with appearances in a run of martial arts films and ever-increasing spin-offs from the Emmanuelle movies with Sylvia Kristel.

After leaving school, Lazenby worked as a salesman at a Morris Motor Company dealership in Canberra and as a ski instructor.

He went on to serve in the Australian Army Special forces, reaching the rank of Sergeant and becoming an unarmed combat instructor.

He moved to London in 1964 as a model, then as an advertising actor, abd by 1968 he was the highest-paid male model in the world, including a stint as the European Malboro Man.

(In 1967 he made £40,000 directly from modelling and £60,000 from commercials and product endorsements — equivalent to more than one million pounds in 2004).

Next up - despite his only acting experience being an Italian spy B-movie - he was offered the role of Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service after Connery quit.

The film's producers, mistrusting Lazenby's ability to carry the film, overdubbed his voice with George Baker's in scenes where Bond impersonated Sir Hilary Bray (Baker's character).

During the film's production, Lazenby's manager Ronan O'Rahilly convinced him to refuse a seven-film contract, because he thought James Bond passé in the youth culture of the times.

In the 1970s, Lazenby worked in Hong Kong with Bruce Lee and even went on to honour his contract with three movies following the martial arts star's death.

Lazenby went on to portray Bond several times over the years in numerous parodies and unofficial 007 roles, most notably the 1983 TV movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. and an episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, entitled Diamonds Aren't Forever.

He also made a guest appearance on the popular TV series Superboy during the show's second season in 1990 and appeared with Sylvia Kristel in several new Emmanuelle films in the 1990s.

Offscreen, he focused on business and property and ended up owning mansions in Hawaii, Brentwood, California, Australia, and a 600-acre ranch estate in Valyermo, California.

Lazenby had a son, Zachary (who died from brain cancer) and an adult daughter, Melanie, from his first marriage to Christina Gannett, heiress to the Gannett newspaper publishing empire.

In 2002, he married his second wife, former tennis player Pam Shriver.