For 15 years he has embodied the secret agent James Bond – now it’s out: British actor Daniel Craig (53) is related to the real James Bond († 89)!
The real James Bond? Yes!
The fact is: Bond inventor Ian Fleming († 56) got his hands on a book about the bird life of the Antilles in the 1950s and named his famous agent figure after the author of the work. It was ornithologist James Bond (1900-1989) from Philadelphia (US state Pennsylvania).
Fleming liked the ornithologist’s name because it was “short, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and at the same time extremely masculine,” as he later wrote in a letter to Bond’s widow.
Ancestry genealogists have now discovered a surprising connection between the real-life Bond and actor Craig. During their research, the genealogists found that not only Daniel Craig (born in Chester, England) but also James Bond had family roots in England.
Bond inventor Ian Fleming took the name of ornithologist James Bond for his agent figure
The genealogists followed the family trees of the two into the 14th century and determined: Bond and Craig are half-cousins of the 19th degree. Their common ancestor lived almost 800 years ago. It is John of Gaunt (1340-1399), the first Duke of Lancaster.
The two are considered half-cousins because James Bond is a descendant from the first marriage of John of Gaunt, while Daniel Craig’s family goes back to the third marriage of the nobleman. The children from these marriages were therefore half-siblings, and their descendants are correspondingly half-cousins.
Distantly related: John of Gaunt, ornithologist James Bond and actor Daniel Craig (from left to right)
John of Gaunt was married to Blanche of Lancaster (1341-1368) for the first time, and James Bond is an 18th generation descendant of the two. The third wife of John of Gaunt was Katherine Swynford (approx. 1350-1403), whose 19th generation descendant is today’s Bond actor Craig.
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