Peter R. Hunt, editor of the first five James Bond films and director of the singular "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" starring George Lazenby as the suave spy, has died. He was 77.
Hunt died Aug. 14 of heart failure at his home in Santa Monica.
The London-born Hunt, who studied violin at the London College of Music and art history at the University of Rome before joining the British film industry in 1947, was a highly respected film editor for nearly two decades before he turned to directing.
From the get-go of the Bond franchise, "Dr. No" in 1962, Hunt developed a fresh action editing style he called "crash cutting." By scissoring out dull footage such as the hero walking down stairs, he created faster pacing and added edge-of-the-seat suspense. The form is now ubiquitous in action filmmaking.
Hunt perfected the quick-cutting technique as he went on to edit the next four Bond films, all starring the original "Dr. No" hero, Sean Connery--"From Russia with Love," "Goldfinger," "Thunderball" and "You Only Live Twice."
"My feeling was always that one should make the films seriously," Hunt once said of the Bond franchise, "but never take them seriously."
In 1969, Hunt was given his first chance to direct--the sixth Bond film, which film historian Leonard Maltin notes in his "2002 Movie & Video Guide," "some 007 fans consider the best of the series."
The film differed from its predecessors in many ways--a new Bond in Lazenby, and one with real emotions who got married, although the wife got killed in the finale. Hunt insisted on a top-notch actress for the beautiful Bond girl, and got her--Dame Diana Rigg, then as popular for her Emma Peel of television's "The Avengers" as for her Shakespearean stage roles.
" 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is by a long shot the very best of the James Bond epics," former Times entertainment editor Charles Champlin began his review of the film. "It is ... ablaze with action all the way. But it is also the first of the films in which Bond is allowed any genuine claims to humanity, real feeling and sentiment."
Champlin praised Hunt's directing, writing: "It is a first Bond effort for Peter Hunt as director, and he's turned the splendid trick of creating impressions of depth without jeopardizing the gorgeous escapist nonsense which the 007 enterprises are."
Hunt also directed Roger Moore in several action productions, although not as Bond. Among their collaborations were episodes of the television series "The Persuaders" and the films "Gold" and "Shout at the Devil" co-starring Lee Marvin. He directed Marvin and Charles Bronson in "Death Hunt" and Bronson again in the 1987 political thriller "Assassination." Other directing credits included "Gulliver's Travels" and "Wild Geese II."
In recent years, Hunt appeared in a number of documentaries and special footage for DVD presentations of Bond films.
Hunt, who served in the British military in World War II, is survived by one son, Nicholas Kourtis-Hunt, of Santa Monica, and a brother, Derek Hunt, of British Columbia.
