ABOVE: A diverse international cast (clockwise): French actress Claudine Auger as Domino Derval; Scottish actor Sean Connery as James Bond 007; Italian actor Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo; Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe; New Zealand‑born actor Guy Doleman as SPECTRE Agent Count Lippe; English model and actress Molly Peters as Shrublands nurse Patricia Fearing; Jamaican‑born Martine Beswick as Bond’s Bahamian contact Paula; and American actor Rik Van Nutter (pronounced ‘Nooter’) as CIA Agent Felix Leiter.

BELOW: The UK quad‑crown advance teaser poster for Thunderball (1965), with artwork by Frank McCarthy (top left & bottom left) and Robert McGinnis (top right & bottom right). The poster was designed to be cut into double‑crown sized displays (20" X 30") in various combinations. Curiously, the film’s title does not appear on the poster. The final panel featured a rarely used McGinnis illustration of Bond spearing a SPECTRE frogman, which only appeared on German release posters for Thunderball.

BELOW: Robert McGinnis also painted an alternate version of the key UK poster artwork, depicting Bond and the girls standing, which was used on larger US posters and throughout Europe. The artwork was additionally employed by United Artists (UK) for their 1965 Christmas card, with the front showing James Bond (Sean Connery) as Father Christmas; a cut‑out section for his face revealed the full McGinnis illustration when opened out.

ABOVE: Supporting players (L‑R): Bermudian actor Earl Cameron as Pinder, Bond’s contact in Nassau; British character actor Philip Locke as Vargas; and Greek Cypriot actor Paul Stassino as François Derval/Angelo Palazzi. Stassino was photographed with Claudine Auger at Pinewood Studios for the file photo issued to all Double‑O agents at the Whitehall briefing in Thunderball (1965). The sun-lounger seen in the photograph was the same one used in scenes set at the Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami poolside, when James Bond (Sean Connery) is massaged by Dink (Margaret Nolan) in Goldfinger (1964) – also filmed at Pinewood Studios.

BELOW: Returning faces at MI6 (L‑R): Bernard Lee as M; Desmond Llewelyn as Q, appearing for the third time in the EON Productions James Bond series, but here joining Bond in the field; and Lois Maxwell as M’s secretary Miss Moneypenny.

ABOVE: An unused piece of concept artwork by Robert McGinnis depicting a scene proposed in the original script, with Bond and Domino making love underwater. The British Board of Film Censors raised concerns about the sequence when the script was submitted in April 1965. In the finished film, audiences only saw a climactic burst of bubbles as the image dissolved to Bond and Domino emerging from the sea after she had trodden on a sea urchin’s spine.

BELOW: Thunderball Behind‑the‑Scenes – Returning Faces

(1) Director Terence Young [pictured right with Italian actor Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo] returned to the franchise to direct his third James Bond film.
(2) Production Designer Ken Adam at Pinewood Studios, working on his third Bond film.
(3) Cinematographer Ted Moore [pictured right with Sean Connery] photographed his fourth successive Bond film, and his first in Panavision. He did not work on the next two films in the series but went on to win an Academy Award for his cinematography on A Man for All Seasons (1966), returning to the Bond series with Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
(4) Special Effects Supervisor John Stears [kneeling] won an Academy Award for his work on Thunderball (1965) – his fourth successive Bond film.
Pictured with Stears is British motorcycle racer Chris Vincent (1935–2021), who rode the BSA Lightning at Silverstone Racetrack for Thunderball (1965).
(5) Stunt Co‑ordinator Bob Simmons [pictured left with Sean Connery] returned to the series for his third Bond film and also appeared uncredited as Col. Jacques Bouvar [Boitier] in Thunderball (1965).
(6) Retired US Air Force Officer Lt. Col. Charles Russhon [pictured right clowning with Sean Connery], whose military connections and expertise furnished locations on the six Bond films he worked on as Technical Advisor. For Thunderball (1965) he supplied the Bell Rocket Belt (flown in the pre‑credit sequence by American pilot William P. ‘Bill’ Suitor) and the experimental rocket fuel used to destroy the Disco Volante. Russhon also secured access to the US Navy’s still‑experimental Skyhook rescue system, which supposedly lifted James Bond and Domino from the water at the end of the film.