John Glen, Film Director

SUNBURY has had a number of famous residents in the past but one in particular has touched millions of lives with his craft as a film editor and director – John Glen.

Glen was born in Sunbury on May 5 1932 and freely admits that many of his childhood influences went into his later work on the 007 franchise of films.

He recalls his time growing up during the war years as particularly exciting with dogfights in the sky above his head and occasionally having to dive for cover during the ‘doodlebug’ V1 raids in the later war years. It was an all-action childhood and, presumably, he felt the urge to use those experiences in helping to make some of the Bond movies.

His initial involvement with Mr Bond came in 1969 when he worked as film editor and second unit director on ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,’ which starred George Lazenby (taking over the iconic role of 007 from Sean Connery) and Diana Rigg.

Glen also edited and was second unit director on ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ in 1977 and ‘Moonraker’ in 1979, both starring Roger Moore as Bond.

In that capacity, he obviously made a favourable impression on the Bond film producers because by 1981 he had been invited to come on board as the director and there followed an amazing sequence of five films between 1981 and 1989 – ‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981), ‘ Octopussy’ (1983), ‘A View to a Kill’ (1985), ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987) and ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989). The first three all starred Moore while the last two featured Timothy Dalton as the ubiquitous secret agent.

With those films to his credit, Glen has directed more James Bond movies than any other director.
Interestingly, Glen put his own stamp on the Bond franchise – particularly with the two titles starring
Dalton, which are notably darker and less flippant that those featuring Roger Moore.

Glen later revealed that he was keen to get back to the more serious Bond stuff – more in line with the way 007’s creator Ian Fleming intended his character to be portrayed when he wrote the books. Bond is, after all, a killer with a licence to killbestowed upon him by the Government in defence of a grateful nation.

Father Christmas, he ain’t, and Glen took pleasure in presenting him in a harsher and tougher light. He commented: "I think I achieved a first rate mixture of action and real drama. My last two films with Timothy Dalton were two of my best. They weren’t the most successful Bond films but I think they were my better work.”

Rather like another famous director, Alfred Hitchcock, Glen always liked to leave a personal stamp on his films. Hitchcock always appeared in his movies – even if it was just as an extra walking across the road. With John Glen, it took the form of a pigeon flying out of a hole in the wall. Additionally, in all five of the Bond films he directed, Glen manages to have at least one character falling out of a plane.
 
Away from the glamour of 007, John Glen was also film editor on ‘Superman,’ and ‘The Wild Geese’ both in 1978.

Glen retired in 2001 but he has left us a wonderful catalogue of first rate action movies as his cinematographic legacy