20 Things You Didn’t Know About Goldfinger (1964)
19. “Well, I Can See This Is Really My Day!”
When Jack Lord was approached to reprise his role as CIA agent, Felix Leiter in Goldfinger, he was not only filming Western television series, Stoney Burke (1962-1963), but screenwriter, Richard Maibaum also reported that Lord requested a higher salary, greater screen time, and co-star billing with Sean Connery, which the producers could not agree to.
Instead, they cast Canadian actor, Austin Wallis as a replacement. Even though Wallis did not resemble Lord and seemed significantly older than the future Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980) star, he was only three years older than Lord.
However, at the last minute, the filmmakers switched Wallis’s role with that of Polish-born Canadian actor, Cec Linder, who had been cast as Mr Simmons, whom Goldfinger repeatedly swindles during their regular games of gin rummy at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami, allowing Linder to go down in history as the second official Felix Leiter.