Ian Fleming may have been a famous British spy novelist, but his heart belonged to Jamaica. The author of the world famous James Bond series spent every winter in a Jamaica villa for nearly 20 years, writing many of his best-selling novels here. His beloved Jamaica also starred in a number of his books, and in the even-more-famous movies.
Dr. No, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, Octopussy; all of these books were set at least in part here in Jamaica. The movies Dr. No and Live and Let Die were shot here, setting off a tourism boom for the country.
Ian Fleming first came to here in 1942, sent by British intelligence to investigate reports of German U-boats in the area. He fell in love with the island, the Jamaica vacation villas and swore he would come back one day, buy a piece of land and build one of his own. He did just that.
Fleming’s home in Jamaica was called Goldeneye, located near the town of Oracabessa in St. Mary Parish on the north coast of the island. After Ian Fleming died, the property was sold to reggae star Bob Marley. In 1977, Marley sold it to the founder of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, who developed it into a world class resort. In a surprising link back to Fleming, Blackwell’s mother Blanche was a close friend of the author’s, and Blackwell himself had a small part in the filming of Dr. No.
Today, the resort’s beachfront is one of the most beautiful on the island, and it has an appropriately named James Bond Beach. Anyone can come spend time here and rent a wave runner or a sea kayak, so anyone can paddle out into the waves, and check out the famous home looking down from the hill.
Jamaica offers many places where visitors can feel connected to both Fleming and his famously handsome spy. When travelers arrive in Jamaica, the first James Bond moment happens almost immediately, at the Norman Manley International Airport. The airport near Kingston, Jamaica, is where Sean Connery was picked up by a suspicious driver right at the beginning of the film Dr. No. In the city of Kingston, Connery stops at Government House, meets Felix Leiter at Morgan’s Harbour, and watches a house on Kinsale Street.
The iconic Dr. No scene where Ursula Andress walks out of the surf in her cream-colored belted bikini was shot at the Laughing Waters Beach, in Ocho Rios. It’s said that Fleming himself was on hand for the shooting of this scene, as was his best friend, poet Noel Coward. The movie created a fictional place called Crab Key, and filming for this locale took place all around the north shore, including on the White River and at the beautiful (and undeveloped at the time) Dunn’s River Falls. The beach in Falmouth was where Sean Connery and Ursula Andress took cover when they were being shot at by Dr. No’s henchmen.
More than a decade later, Falmouth was once again the scene of filming for a James Bond movie. Live and Let Die used Jamaica to film scenes set on the fictional island of San Monique. Filmmakers also used the stunning Green Grotto Caves for Kananga’s underground lair.
Ian Fleming may have passed away at his home in England in 1964, but he is still so much a part of the Jamaican culture that he has just had an airport named after him. Ian Fleming International Airport, east of Ocho Rios, was officially opened in January 2011 by Jamaica’s Prime Minister, and Fleming’s niece, Lucy.
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