Mel Gibson "too short" for Bond role

Mel Gibson was turned down for the role of James Bond as he is too short.

The 5ft 9ins star was keen to take on the iconic British spy role many years ago, but film producer Cubby Broccoli was not keen. He was adamant Bond had to be tall and intimidating, and didn’t think Mel was imposing enough.

“At one point Mel Gibson wanted to play Bond and Cubby was against it,” says Tom Mankiewicz, who wrote Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun. “Cubby first of all had a thing about tall people. Bond had to be tall. And so Mel Gibson was too short. But he was a big star.”

Bosses at film studio United Artists were so keen to get Mel on board they asked Tim to do everything in his power to persuade Cubby, but he would not budge.

Tim recalled: “Somebody at United Artists said to me, ‘Call him and tell him Mel Gibson would be great.’ And Cubby said, ‘I don’t want to make a Mel Gibson movie, I want to make a James Bond movie.’ ”

Other stars to have played the suave spy include Timothy Dalton, who is 6ft 2ins, 6ft 1ins Pierce Brosnan and Sir Sean Connery who measures 6ft 2ins.