Felix Leiter is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. In both, Leiter works for the CIA, and assists Bond in his various adventures. In further novels Leiter joins Pinkertons Detective Agency and in the film Licence to Kill he transfers to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The name “Felix” comes from the middle name of Fleming’s friend Ivor Bryce while the name “Leiter” was the surname of Fleming’s friend Marion Oates Leiter Charles, then wife of Thomas Leiter.

David Hedison as Felix Leiter in ‘Live and Let Die’.

In the 1954 Climax! television adaptation of Casino Royale, which featured Barry Nelson as CIA agent Jimmy Bond, his opposite number became British secret agent Clarence Leiter, played by Australian actor Michael Pate.

Novel biography: Felix Leiter makes his first appearance and introduction to James Bond in the first Bond novel, Casino Royale. He is an ex-member of the US Marine Corps, now working for the CIA and stationed in Paris. In Live and Let Die, the second Bond novel, Leiter is fed to a shark by Mr Big’s henchmen and ends up losing an arm and a leg. He is subsequently invalided out of the CIA, but continues to appear throughout the novel series working as a private detective for Pinkertons Detective Agency. By the time of Thunderball Leiter is called back to the CIA during the crisis. He continues at the CIA and plays a major role in Fleming’s final novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, where he was sent to assist in the breakup of the syndicate headed by Francisco Scaramanga.

After John Gardner took over writing the James Bond novel series, Felix made an occasional appearance. The novel For Special Services introduces Felix’s daughter, Cedar Leiter, who is also a CIA agent (and briefly Bond’s romantic conquest), while in Win, Lose or Die US President George Bush (making a cameo appearance in the novel) mentions working with Leiter in his previous capacity as CIA director.

Leiter also makes appearances in Raymond Benson’s continuation Bond novels, The Facts of Death, in which he helps Bond substantially with a mission in Texas, and Doubleshot. Benson has Leiter sometimes making use of an electric wheelchair, in reference to the deterioration of his legs following the shark attack, but Leiter is still capable of walking with the aid of a cane. Leiter has also found a Hispanic girlfriend, Manuela, since Gardner left him.

Film biography: In the films, Leiter is a CIA agent in all appearances except in Licence to Kill in which he worked for the DEA.

The cinematic Bond and Leiter meet for the first time in Dr No, the first Bond film. The film version of Live and Let Die does not contain the sequence with the shark, and Leiter survives intact to help Bond again, however, Leiter’s confrontation with the shark would later be in Licence to Kill where he is fed to a shark by the villain Franz Sanchez. The film version of Leiter lost only one leg at the knee to the shark, although one arm was seriously injured. Although severely mutilated, Leiter would still remain alive. His newly-married wife, Della, is raped and murdered by Sanchez’s henchmen. These atrocities would send Bond on a quest for vengeance, which forms the film’s central plot.

In more recent films the character of Jack Wade has appeared as the regular representative of the CIA, ostensibly because the producers did not want to feature a disabled Leiter. It is hinted in GoldenEye that he was friends with Leiter, though Leiter is never mentioned by name. Leiter appeared in the 2006 adaptation of Casino Royale. As the film was a reboot, Leiter once again worked for the CIA with no mention of the shark encounter.

There is little if any visual continuity between Leiter’s film appearances. In Dr No he is depicted as being somewhat suave and mysterious and roughly the same age as Bond; the very next appearance of the character in Goldfinger depicted him as middle-aged and grey-haired and a more typical American policeman type or an American counterpart of M; in the very next film, he was once again depicted as being about Bond’s age and more physically active than the Goldfinger Leiter, and so on; also, while usually portrayed by Caucasian actors, Leiter has on three occasions (one in a non-EON production, twice in EON productions) been portrayed by African-American actors.

Actors: After Dr No, it was decided that Jack Lord, the first actor to officially play Leiter, would not be cast again for fear that his popularity might upstage or overshadow Bond (Sean Connery). As a result, while Leiter appears in a number of Bond films, he has almost always been played by different actors in each, and hence has not achieved the memorable status of other Bond characters such as M, Q and Miss Moneypenny. Leiter appears in nine films, played by eight different actors, who vary dramatically in age, physical characteristics and even race; for example, Leiter was portrayed by an African-American actor, Bernie Casey, in the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again and by Jeffrey Wright, another African-American, in the 2006 film Casino Royale.

David Hedison and Jeffrey Wright are the only actors to play Leiter more than once. Hedison was recast in Licence to Kill having previously played the role in Live and Let Die 16 years earlier. The producers decided that due to the events of that film, with the entire plot being driven by Leiter’s crippling and Bond’s resultant quest for revenge, the producers would need someone who was already established in the role to resonate with the audience. Wright, much later, became the first actor to play Leiter in consecutive films when he appeared in Casino Royale and its direct sequel, Quantum of Solace.

Actors who have played Felix Leiter in the films (in order of appearance):

• Jack Lord: Dr No (1962)
• Cec Linder: Goldfinger (1964)
• Rik Van Nutter: Thunderball (1965)
• Norman Burton: Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
• David Hedison: Live and Let Die (1973), Licence to Kill (1989)
• Bernie Casey: Never Say Never Again (1983)
• John Terry: The Living Daylights (1987)
• Jeffrey Wright: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008)

See also:

• Bond allies