Writer: Richard Maibaum

Richard Maibaum wrote or co-wrote thirteen James Bond films between Dr. No in 1962 and Licence to Kill in 1989, which is more than anyone else and effectively makes him the architect of the series in prose. The gun barrel, the briefing, the villain’s explanation and the pre-title stunt are all conventions he helped fix.

He was a Broadway playwright before Hollywood and worked on the Bond scripts largely as an adapter, taking Fleming’s plots and restructuring them for a form that had to deliver spectacle on a schedule. From Russia with Love follows the novel closely; Moonraker retains almost nothing but the title.

His work outside Bond includes The Great Gatsby and Ransom, and he served in the Army Signal Corps during the war. The franchise’s longevity owes more to his structural template than to any single director.