Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn (September 12, 1914 – December 19, 1999) was a Welsh actor, famous for playing the fictional character of Q in the James Bond series of films.

Desmond Llewelyn pens himself as ‘Q’.

Born in Newport, Wale, Llewelyn was the son of a coal mining engineer. He originally wanted to be a minister but during his education at Radley College he worked as a stagehand in the school’s productions and then picked up sporadic small parts. The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 halted his acting career, and Llewelyn was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British army, serving with the Royal Welch Fusiliers. In 1940, he was captured by the German army in France, and was held as a POW for five years. During this period he appeared in a number of theatrical productions as well as taking part in attempted escape activities.

Since 1963’s From Russia with Love, Llewelyn appeared as Q (the quartermaster of the MI6 gadget lab known as Q-branch) in every James Bond film, except Live and Let Die (1973), until The World Is Not Enough (1999). He had originally been chosen for the role as he had previously worked with the director Terence Young on the 1950 war film They Were Not Divided. In the 2002 film Die Another Day, John Cleese, who played the character R, the assistant to Q in The World Is Not Enough, was promoted to the head of Q-branch, thus taking on the title of Q.

Llewelyn appeared in other films such as Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde (1981) and also a small appearance in the famous musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and in the Ealing comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). He acted on stage and appeared in the British television series Follyfoot – his commitments filming that series were the reason why he did not appear in Live and Let Die.

1. From Russia with Love (1963)
2. Goldfinger (1964)
3. Thunderball (1965)
4. You Only Live Twice (1967)
5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
6. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
7. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
8. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
9. Moonraker (1979)
10. For Your Eyes Only (1981)
11. Octopussy (1983)
12. A View to a Kill (1985)
13. The Living Daylights (1987)
14. Licence to Kill (1989)
15. GoldenEye (1995)
16. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
17. The World Is Not Enough (1999)