20 Things You Didn't Know About From Russia With Love (1963)
2. A Professional To The End
Pedro Armendáriz's Ali Kerim Bey is easily one of James Bond’s best on-screen allies. They are convincingly far more than just colleagues and From Russia With Love suffers a striking blow when Kerim Bey perishes at the hands of Red Grant.
However, whilst Kerim Bey’s death was a great shock on-screen, the tragedy continued behind the scenes.
It is suspected that Armendáriz - one of Mexico’s most respected actors - had contracted kidney cancer as a result of his work on The Conqueror (1956), which was filmed in Utah, downwind of an active nuclear test site in Nevada. Numerous other cast and crew members (and even visitors to the set) on that film also contracted cancer, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead.
Whatever the cause, Armendáriz was in terrible pain whilst filming From Russia With Love and, when it was discovered that he had cancer, the filmmakers rearranged the shooting schedule so that his scenes were prioritised. Other members of the cast and crew, including Terence Young, also stood in for Armendáriz in long shots to put him under a minimum amount of strain.
When his work on the film was completed, Pedro Armendáriz checked himself into a Los Angeles hospital and smuggled a gun into his room so that he could end his own life with dignity rather than gradually succumbing to his illness. He finished his performance in From Russia With Love so that his family could receive his salary after he had passed away.