LyingNever Run at the Mouth
Never Let the Bastards Wear You DownDEE SNIDER, title of 2000 album
Snider achieved fame as the front man for the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. This was his only solo album, consisting entirely of songs written during his time with the group. The title comes from a mock-Latin saying, Illegitimi non carborundum, that emerged during WWII and was said to mean, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” The saying is often associated with “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell, an American army general who adopted it as a motto. The saying got national publicity in 1946 when Alabama congressman Frank Boykin sent President Truman an elaborately lettered copy of the saying to be placed on his desk in the Oval Office.
“Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth”SPARKS, title of 1974 song (written by Ron Mael)
“Never Give Up on a Dream”ROD STEWART, title of 1981 song
Written by Stewart, guitarist Jim Cregan, and lyricist Bernie Taupin, the song was dedicated to Terry Fox, a young Canadian who had lost his right leg to bone cancer in 1977. In 1980, Fox became an international celebrity for his “Marathon of Hope,” an attempt to run from Newfoundland to British Columbia to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. After 143 days of running on one healthy and one prosthetic leg, Fox had logged more than 3,000 miles when the cancer metastasized to his lungs and forced him to end his quest. When he died in 1981, Fox was one of Canada’s most admired figures. His memory lives on in the annual “Terry Fox Run,” with people from more than fifty countries participating in the world’s largest single-day cancer fundraiser.
Never Read a Newspaper at Your DeskRICHARD F. STIEGELE, title of 1994 book
Never Give Up:
How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into SuccessDONALD TRUMP, title of 2008 memoir
While Never give up is one of history’s most famous sayings, it is also one of publishing history’s most popular book titles. I don’t have a precise count, but I’ve seen it show up as the title or subtitle of over a hundred books, including the memoirs, autobiographies, and biographies of Gloria Estefan, Richard Simmons, Allen Iverson, and Tedy Bruschi (see the sports chapter for more on Bruschi’s book).
Never Wake a Sleeping BabyKENDRA LYNN WHITING, title of 2007 book
Whiting chose a time-honored proverbial saying as the title for her self-published advice book for new parents. In the book, she also offered these time-tested tips: “Never discipline in anger” and “Never put a baby to bed with a bottle.”
fifteen
Never Judge a Book by Its Movie
Stage & Screen
In 1961, a little-known Scottish actor by the name of Sean Connery was chosen to play the role of Special Agent James Bond in a planned film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s 1958 novel Dr. No. Connery was selected after a number of established stars—including Cary Grant and James Mason—turned down the part or were rejected during auditions. Fleming, who initially preferred David Niven for the role, was strongly opposed to the selection of Connery, saying, “He’s not what I envisioned of James Bond.” In Fleming’s mind, his fictional special agent was a debonair and sophisticated Englishman, like Niven, and not at all like the rugged and unrefined Connery. At one point in the auditions, Fleming even disparaged Connery, saying, “I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man.” Director Terence Young, however, thought Connery might bring something special to the role. After much discussion, Connery did finally get the part. It was not because of Young’s urging, though. As the two men were debating what to do, Fleming’s girlfriend told the reluctant writer that she believed Connery would bring a strong sexual charisma to the role.
When filming began, Connery had trouble getting into the role, once confessing, “The character is not really me, after all.” But he worked hard with Terence Young, and even borrowed many of the English director’s speech patterns and mannerisms. Connery eventually won over Fleming as well. Indeed, the writer was so pleased with Connery’s portrayal of his precious character that, in all subsequent Bond novels, he gave Agent 007 a partially Scottish heritage.
Soon after its English release in 1962 and its American premiere in 1963, Dr. No established Connery as a major motion picture star. The film, which had been shot with a modest budget of one million dollars, grossed $16 million in the United States and $59 million worldwide. Over the next five years, Connery played Bond in four more films: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967). The Bond films were becoming a bankable franchise and Connery was on his way to becoming a cinematic icon.
Despite the success of the films, Connery worried about becoming typecast as Agent 007. To guard against it, he took a number of other parts, including a role in Marnie, the 1964 Alfred Hitchcock thriller. But movie fans the world over had fallen in love with his Bond persona, and he continued to go back to the role. By the end of 1967, though, after doing five Bond films, Connery had grown weary of the part. He announced that You Only Live Twice was his last Bond film.
After a prolonged search for a replacement, EON Productions named Australian actor and model George Lazenby as the next James Bond. Even though Lazenby was offered a seven-picture deal, he signed a contract for only one film after his agent convinced him that the womanizing Bond would likely become an archaic stereotype in the sexually liberated 1970s. In 1969, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service appeared with Lazenby as Agent 007. The film did well at the box office, but critical reception was divided, and there were many who said it would have been the best of all the Bond films if Connery had been in the lead role.
Lazenby’s decision to sign a one-picture deal opened the door for Connery, who was lured back to do one more Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever (1971). The forty-year-old actor certainly didn’t need the money, but he was offered such a lucrative deal that he said, “I was really bribed into it.” As with all previous Bond films, it was a commercial success, but this one was panned by many critics (Danny Peary said it was “one of the most forgettable movies of the entire Bond series”). Connery announced, once again, that Diamonds Are Forever would be his last Bond film. This time he really meant it, he assured his future wife, the French painter Micheline Roqueburne. She replied, “Never say never!”
Over the next twelve years, Connery starred in more than a dozen films, including Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would be King (1975), and Robin and Marian, a lovely 1976 film in which he played an aging Robin Hood who was still in love with the lovely Maid Marian, played by Audrey Hepburn. In the last half of the decade, he gave respectable performances in a number of other films, none of which became great hits.
In 1983, a dozen years after he said he would never again play Agent 007—and sixteen years after his first pledge to retire from the series—Connery appeared in yet another Bond film. This one was a remake of the 1965 film Thunderball. It is sometimes referred to as an “unofficial” Bond film because it was not produced by EON Productions, who started the franchise. The title of the film was:
