10 Most Unusual Demands By James Bond Actors
5. Co-Star Billing With Sean Connery - Jack Lord
Jack Lord was the first actor to portray the great CIA agent Felix Leiter, appearing in Dr. No and working with Bond (Connery) while he's in Kingston.
Lord was invited back to reprise his role in the third Bond film, Goldfinger, though evidently appreciating the success of the first two movies, made some high-flying demands.
According to Richard Maibaum, who wrote both Dr. No and Goldfinger, Lord made three over-the-odds requests - a larger role in the film, a bigger salary, and most of all co-star billing opposite Sean Connery.
It appeared that Lord wanted Felix to be 007's equal, which clearly wasn't how the producers and filmmakers saw the character, and so Lord was eventually dismissed.
Felix was recast with Cec Linder taking the part, as began a game of hot potato around the role, with four actors playing Felix for a single film a-piece until David Hedison portrayed him in two films (Live and Let Die and Licence to Kill).
You can't really blame Lord for trying to elevate a fan favourite supporting character, though given that he was still very much a rising actor at the time - it was a few years before he broke out on Hawaii Five-O - he had virtually no leverage to affect this change.