Page 188 - They Also Served

Phantom Signals Unit, a Commando forward reconnaissance unit. Calming his soldiers’ nerves before an operation he said, ‘Look – you chaps only have to do this once – but I’ll have to do it all over again in Hollywood – with Errol Flynn!’ Awarded the US Legion of Merit, Niven was demobbed as a lieutenant-colonel.
Returning to Hollywood, he was never out of work, but the major roles eluded him as they had fellow pre-war British star and wartime officer Richard Greene. Niven also appeared on the Broadway stage and was spotted by Otto Preminger
and cast in The Moon Is Blue, for which he won a Golden Globe. This rebooted his career and Niven starred in the huge hit Around the World in 80 Days and later won an Oscar for Separate Tables (1958). After action hits such as The Guns of Navarone and comedy hits such as The Pink Panther, Niven was cast as James Bond in the spy caper Casino Royale, a spoof rival to the already popular Bond franchise starring Sean Connery. The film had a stellar cast, including cameos from Peter O’Toole and Stirling Moss, and a debut for Dave Prowse – better known as Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. Indeed, Niven had been Ian Fleming’s first choice to play Bond in Dr. No.
Niven continued to star throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and his last film was a cameo role in Curse of The Pink Panther (1983). By now suffering from motor neurone disease, his voice was dubbed for the film. He also published two novels and two highly successful autobiographies, the first of which, The Moon’s A Balloon, sold over five million copies. David Niven died on 29th July 1983. At his memorial service, an enormous wreath was delivered from the Heathrow Airport porters with the inscription: ‘To the finest gentleman who ever walked through these halls. He made a porter feel like a king’.
182