Lewis Gilbert, the British director of a string of celebrated films including the 1966 Michael Caine hit Alfie and The Spy Who Loved Me, arguably the high point of the Roger Moore James Bond era, has died aged 97.
He made an enormous contribution to the British film industry as well as the Bond films, directing You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
Gilbert returned to Bond with The Spy Who Loved Me, in 1977 – with its union-jack parachute, underwater Lotus and metal-dentured assassin – which remains the benchmark for the cock-eyebrowed Roger Moore era.
“What I admired so much about Lewis Gilbert was that he just took the screenplay and shot it.