20 Things You Didn't Know About Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
7. “If At First You Don’t Succeed, Mr Kidd...”
The decision to portray Mr Wint and Mr Kidd as two creepy homosexual killers is controversial, regardless of the fact that Felix Leiter expressed his belief that they were homosexual in Ian Fleming’s 1956 novel.
Guy Hamilton saw Putter Smith performing at a Thelonious Monk jazz show and Harry Saltzman eagerly signed him up to the role of Mr Kidd. Meanwhile, musician and actor, Paul Williams turned down the role of Mr Wint due to failed salary negotiations and Bruce Glover was hired instead, even though the script described Wint as a deformed Peter Lorre-style character.
Glover and Smith rarely broke character on-set and Glover (father of Crispin Glover) later recalled that Sean Connery was entirely taken in by their act, believing them to be a homosexual couple.
Several years after making the film, Glover was on an airline flight, flirting with a stewardess, unaware that Connery was on the same plane. The former James Bond actor was reportedly very surprised to learn that Glover and Smith had been deceiving him all along!