Roger Taylor: British tennis star who auditioned to be James Bond

Times

8 hours ago

To say I warmed to Roger Taylor is an understatement. The former British No1 is engaging, earnest and, in his way fascinating. We talked about tennis, the British class system, Rod Laver (who Taylor defeated in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1970 in perhaps the best match of his career) and so much more. We also talked about the time he auditioned to take over from Sean Connery as 007, of which more later.
Taylor is 83 now but you can still glimpse through the mists of time the man with the matinee idol looks who wowed fans — female fans in particular — during his pomp in the 1960s and 70s. He made his way into tennis from a working-class family in Sheffield, playing with his mum on the public courts, travelling on three buses to get to tournaments in Ilkley, and even more to play in competitions further afield. Back then, this son of a trade unionist was more than a little conscious that he was gatecrashing a middle-class sport.
'I often felt self-conscious when playing in tournaments at posh clubs because I didn't have the right kit or the right accent, but what I did have was plenty of ability,' he said. 'It wasn't so bad when I played in matches in Sheffield or Hull because I fitted in. But I remember going to the All England Club and feeling a bit out of place. Most of the members were former military men who barked my name: 'Taylor!' I jumped to attention. It was a more deferential society back then.'
At the age of 17, he moved to Wimbledon to live in the local YMCA along with Dickie Dillon, another Sheffield player. 'We worked at the Fred Perry warehouse in Soho during the day and then played tennis at Wimbledon Park or Fulham Park when we got back home, or ran around Wimbledon Common.' Why didn't he practise at the All England Club? He almost laughed. 'You weren't allowed to play there! If ever you walked past, it was like a ghost town.'
Money was tight, but Taylor described it as a golden period in his life. 'Working at the warehouse was a bit like weight training, except we were shifting huge boxes of Green Flash trainers. We had a weekly salary of five pounds, two shillings and sixpence (around £75 today) and a lot of that went on the Tube fare to get to and from Soho from Wimbledon.' Lunch was a sandwich and half a pint of milk and for a treat at weekends, Wimbledon Broadway had a single café. 'The menu was pretty simple,' he said. 'It offered eggs, sausage and chips or sausage, egg and chips or chips, egg and sausage.'
Taylor's big chance to win Wimbledon came in 1973, the year that many of the top stars boycotted the competition over a dispute with the tennis authorities (the players didn't feel they were sufficiently listened to). Taylor — one of only three of the top 16 seeds to play in the competition along with Ilie Nastase and Jan Kodes — made it to the semi-final. He led 5-4 in the deciding set against Kodes, a two-time French Open champion, before they were sent off court due to bad weather. It was (as with Tim Henman against Goran Ivanisevic 28 years later) a decisive interruption.
'After 42 minutes precisely, and without any warning, Captain Gibson [the tournament referee] shouted, 'Taylor, get back out there!' It was dull, dark and damp and many of the spectators had gone home. I completely lost my focus. Eight minutes and three games later, it was over,' he said.
We move on to the James Bond audition, which occurred in 1967 and is, perhaps, the most eyebrow-raising anecdote in Taylor's autobiography, which comes out next week. 'They were looking for a new Bond because Sean Connery was moving on,' he said. 'I was playing at Queen's and Richard Maybourne, the screenwriter of the Bond films, was there as the guest of the vice-chairman of the club, Noel Berryman. As I was playing the final against John Newcombe, Maybourne's wife leaned over and said: 'There's your new James Bond.' '
If you think this sounds like a completely batty idea, I'm with you. A tennis player with no acting experience playing Bond? Back then, though, the franchise was desperate to find someone with the right 'look' to carry off the smooth British spy with his famously masculine appeal. Take a glance at an old photo of Taylor — dashing, smouldering, dark eyes full of mystery (or am I overdoing it?) — and you can see why they were smitten with him.
'On the Sunday, I went to St James's Street for what I thought would be an audition', Taylor said. 'I spent the week practising the line I assumed they wanted me to say: 'The name's Bond. James Bond' — even if I couldn't manage it without a pretty broad Sheffield accent. I walked into a room with a lot of guys staring at me. I felt like an exhibit of some kind. Cubby Broccoli [the legendary producer of the Bond movies] and another mogul did most of the talking, while smoking cigars, but they didn't ask me a single thing. I am not sure I said a word the entire time I was there.'
'Then, they invited me to Pinewood Studios and asked me to bring along my swimming trunks. I wouldn't have minded parading around in my trunks, but it was too much for my then wife. I don't think she wanted to be a Bond girl, so I didn't go to the interview and heard nothing more about it.' The part was ultimately given to George Lazenby — an Australian model who had only acted in commercials but, in my view, turned in an impressive performance in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Our conversation moved back to tennis but Taylor declined my invitation to offer an opinion on the question: who is the greatest male player of all? 'There is no such thing,' he said. 'You can only measure each player against his era.' But when I push him a little, it's pretty obvious that he favours Laver. 'He was such a special player, who had almost everything,' he said. 'I think Federer has described Rod as the finest to have played the game. That is why they named the Laver Cup after him.'
Taylor was on terrific form during the interview but has been in ill health — in addition to battling prostate cancer for five years, he has just had a condition diagnosed called amyloidosis. In his book, he explains: 'It's caused by a protein called amyloid building up inside you, affecting the heart, kidneys, liver, spleen, nervous system and digestive tract. Doesn't sound very nice and just happens to be terminal. Apart from that, it's totally harmless!'
That kind of good-humoured stoicism is Taylor all over. He was a superb tennis player who could have won Wimbledon had the weather not interrupted him when the wind was in his sails. I also can't help thinking as the interview ends and those lovely eyes sparkle that he might just have made a pretty decent Bond.