Real-life 007 Daniel Craig receives same royal honor as fictional 007 James Bond
Daniel Craig was awarded The Order of St Michael and St George on Tuesday
Aux News Craig
Daniel Craig, you will always be James Bond. Even though the actor decided to hang up his license to kill after No Time To Die for a license to be gay and solve crimes in Rian Johnson’s upcoming Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, it will always be hard not to immediately picture that suave accent whenever the iconic secret agent is mentioned. (Good luck to whoever has to fill those perfectly shined shoes.)
The British crown itself is certainly not helping Craig move on from these associations. On Tuesday, the Royal Family’s official Twitter account shared a photo of Princess Anne bestowing The Order of St Michael and St George upon the actor—the very same honor awarded to his character in the original Ian Fleming novels.
Craig’s honor is “in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film and theatre.” While this particular order is most commonly awarded to senior diplomats and other political figures, the monarchy’s official criteria state that it is generally reserved for “men and women of high office, or who render extraordinary or important non-military service in a foreign country.” If that wild Foghorn Leghorn accent in Knives Out doesn’t qualify as extraordinary or important, then we don’t know what does!
This is also not the first time Craig has achieved the same level of exemplary Britishness as his fictional counterpart. In September 2021, the actor was also named an honorary commander in the U.K. Royal Navy, per Entertainment Weekly—a post also shared by the spy.
The real question now is whether this highly decorated “actor” has been wrapping us all into his undercover con for years. The next time a bunch of money goes missing in Hollywood, we can’t say we’d be all that surprised to see the real-life 007 show up on the scene, medal in hand, to deliver his iconic line: I’m Craig. Daniel Craig.
6 Comments
I stopped to read this, hoping Princess Anne had bestowed Craig with a licence to kill. Oh well…
License? Hee don’ neeed no steenking license!
Is Daniel the last of the Bonds?
As us espionage illuminati know too well, John Barry went to the same school as Bill Fairclough and Ian Fleming isn’t around to write another “Trout Memo” or choose the next 007! He has not only eulogised and promoted the “espionage industry” but he has also spread so much disinformation about that industry that even MI6 would have been proud of the dissemination of so much fake news. Maybe the Bond legacy is finally coming to an end notwithstanding the recent publication of Anthony Horowitz’s With a Mind to Kill, particularly after Daniel Craig’s au revoir in No Time To Die.
We think the anti-Bond era is now being firmly established in literature and on the screen. Raw noir anti-Bond espionage masterpieces are on the ascent. Len Deighton’s classic The Ipcress File has been rejuvenated by John Hodge with Joe Cole aspiring to take on Michael Caine and of course there are plenty of Slow Horses ridden by Bad Actors too.
Then there’s Edward Burlington in The Burlington Files series by Bill Fairclough, a real spy (MI6 codename JJ) who disavowed Ian Fleming for his epic disservice to the espionage fraternity. After all, Fleming single-handedly transformed MI6 into a mythical quasi-religious cult that spawned a knight in shining armour numbered 007 who could regularly save the planet from spinning out of orbit.
Last but not least, the final nail in wee Jimmy Bond’s coffin has been hammered in by Jackson Lamb. Mick Herron’s anti-Bond sentiments combine lethally with the sardonic humour of the Slough House series to unreservedly mock not just Bond but also British Intelligence which has lived too long off the overly ripe fruits Fleming left to rot! Time for a fresh start based on a real spy so best read Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series by ex-spook Bill Fairclough.
“Daniel Craig, you will always be James Bond. …it will always be hard not to immediately picture that suave accent whenever the iconic secret agent is mentioned”Really? Also, how are you “picturing” an accent, which is a sound?
Some manner of oscilloscope, perhaps?