Welsh actor Desmond Llewelyn is widely recognised world over for playing the role of Q, the quartermaster of the MI6 gadget lab, in the James Bond films. He first played the role in ‘From Russia with Love’ which released in 1963. Thereafter, he played the role in every EON James Bond film (barring the 1973 ‘Live and Let Die’) until his death in 1999. These include ‘Goldfinger’ (1964), ‘Thunderball’ (1965), ‘You Only Live Twice’ (1967), ‘On Her Majesty's Secret Service’ (1969), ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ (1971), ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ (1974), ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977), ‘Moonraker’ (1979), ‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981), ‘Octopussy’ (1983), ‘A View to a Kill’ (1985), ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987), ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989), ‘GoldenEye’ (1995), ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ (1997) and ‘The World Is Not Enough’ (1999). Apart from films, he also portrayed the character in the 1967 EON productions TV film ‘Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond’ and the 1998 documentary ‘Highly Classified: The World of 007’. Additionally, he lent his voice in the video game ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987) too. His likeness was used in other video games where the voiceover was done by different actors. These video games include ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ (1999), ‘007: The World Is Not Enough’ (2000), ‘007 Racing’ (2000), ‘Nightfire’ (2002), ‘James Bond 007: Nightfire’ (2002), ‘James Bond 007: From Russia with Love’ (2005). Moreover, he starred in several Bond related commercials too like the ones that were meant to promote the video games ‘GoldenEye 007’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.
Before gaining international fame with the James Bond film series, Desmond Llewelyn began his career in 1939 with the TV movie ‘Campbell of Kilmhor’ and film ‘Ask a Policeman’. However, the outbreak of the Second World War halted the progress of his career. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and was sent to France in 1940. There he was captured by the German Army and spent the next five years in German prisoner-of-war camps. Upon his return, he found work quickly and appeared in numerous films, though several of them had him in an uncredited role. These films include ‘Captain Boycott’ (1947), ‘Hamlet’ (1948), ‘Adam and Evelyne’ (1949), ‘The Chiltern Hundreds’ (1949) and ‘Guilt Is My Shadow’ (1950). He also became part of television movies ‘As You Like It’ (1946), ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’ (1946), ‘Saloon Bar’ (1947), ‘A Comedy of Good and Evil’ (1948) and ‘The Good Companions’ (1949).
In the 1950 war film 'They Were Not Divided', he played the supporting role of 77 Jones – a tank commander. Written and directed by Terence Young, the movie was a success and played a big role in Desmond Llewelyn later getting the role of Q in the James Bond film (Terence Young directed ‘From Russia with Love’). The year 1950 also saw him in the role of Mr Hyde in the TV movie 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'.
Following this, Desmond Llewelyn acted in numerous films and TV series. In films he played schoolmaster in ‘Valley of Song’ (1953), the Policeman on Bicycle in ‘The Devil's Jest’ (1954) and Dr. Green in ‘The Silent Playground’ (1963). He had uncredited roles in films like ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’ (1951), ‘Operation Diplomat’ (1953), ‘A Night to Remember’ (1958), ‘Further Up the Creek’ (1958), ‘Corridors of Blood’ (1958), ‘Sapphire’ (1959), ‘Sword of Sherwood Forest’ (1960), ‘The Curse of the Werewolf’ (1961), ‘The Pirates of Blood River’ (1962), and ‘Cleopatra’ (1963).
On television he became a part of various TV series like ‘My Wife Jacqueline’ (1952, 4 episodes), ‘Escape’ (1957, 2 episodes), ‘Queen's Champion’ (1958, 2 episodes) and 'Suspense' (1963, 3 episodes). Additionally, he acted in an episode each of several other TV series like ‘Thunder in the West’ (1957), ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ (1958), ‘The Invisible Man’ (1958), ‘Private Investigator’ (1959) 'Garry Halliday' (1960) and 'Probation Officer' (1963). He also acted in TV movies like ‘The Locked Room’ (1952), ‘Spider's Web’ (1955), ‘Black Furrow’ (1958), ‘Barbed Wire and Bracken’ (1959) and ‘The Second Mrs. Tanqueray’ (1962).
In 1968, Desmond Llewelyn played the minor role of Coggins in the Ken Hughes directed musical fantasy film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ and appeared in 2 episodes of TV series ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ (earlier acted in an episode in 1960). A few years later, in 1971, he was cast in the recurring role of Colonel Geoffrey Maddocks, the original owner of the Follyfoot farm in the children's television series ‘Follyfoot’. He played the role in the 3 series of the show from 1971 to 1973. In 1980, he played the part of Sir Danvers Carew in PBS TV movie ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’.
Desmond Llewelyn’s other film credits since 1963 include ‘The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders’ (1965, uncredited), ‘The Golden Lady’ (1979), ‘Prisoner of Rio’ (1988) and ‘Merlin’ (1993). Some of his television work include the TV movie ‘A Man in the Zoo’ (1975) as well as an episode each of various TV series like ‘The Plane Makers’ (1964), ‘The Sullavan Brothers’ (1964), ‘Secret Agent’ (1965), ‘Mickey Dunne’ (1967), ‘City '68’ (1968), ‘Codename’ (1970), ‘Doomwatch’ (1971), ‘Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em’ (1973), ‘The Nine Tailors’ (1974), ‘The Love School’ (1975), ‘The Onedin Line’ (1976), ‘Eustace and Hilda’ (1977), ‘Lillie’ (1978), ‘Hazell’ (1979) and ‘The Life and Times of David Lloyd George’ (1981).
