Dr. No: 12 Behind the Scenes Photos From the First 007 Film

Tim Molloy
.February 09, 2025

Dr. No, the first James Bond film, which starred Sean Connery as Agent 007, was released on May 8, 1963. Here are some unforgettable photos.

Welcome to Jamaica

Dr. No wasn't the first of Ian Fleming's novels about James Bond — that was 1953's Casino Royale — but Dr. No was the first to be made into a feature film.

Set in London, Jamaica and the fictional island of Crab Kay, it shot on location in Jamaica in 1962.

The plot concerns Agent 007 traveling to Jamaica to investigate the death of MI6 station chief John Strangways. But that's just an excuse to bring together Bond (Sean Connery) and Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), above.

Take 007

Sean Connery (above) earned the role of 007 in part because of his walk, according to the new Nicholas Shakespeare book Ian Fleming: The Complete Man.

He quotes producer Albert Brocolli saying of Connery, "He walked like the most arrogant son of a gun you’ve ever seen," which led him to realize: "That’s our Bond."

Shakespeare's book follows the life of Fleming, whose novels inspired the series of 27 Bond films that started with Dr. No.

Ursula Andress and Ian Fleming

Above: Ursula Andress on set with Bond creator Ian Fleming. As Nicholas Shakespeare's book recounts, Bond was based in part on Fleming, who dramatized and heightened his own experiences with love and spycraft.

Andress' character, Honey Ryder, is often considered the first "Bond girl," although she doesn't make her iconic bikini-clad entrance until about halfway through Dr. No.

She is preceded onscreen by Sylvia Trench and Miss Taro.

Also Read: All 007 James Bond Actors, Ranked

Enter Bearing Shells

Honey Ryder's job is shell diving, and appropriately she enters Dr. No bearing shells. If her opening costume in the film — a white swimsuit and belt — seems a little revealing, consider that in the novel upon which Dr. No is based, she wears only the belt.

The shells sequence turned around the expectations for the film, according to Ian Fleming: The Complete Man.

“‘It was going to be a low-budget flop,’” says Blanche’s son Chris Blackwell, son of Ian Fleming’s muse and love, Blanche Blackwell, in the book. “It all changed when we watched the rushes of Ursula Andress emerging from the sea.”

He added: “It was electrifying. We suddenly felt, ‘Gosh, we’ve got a movie.’”

Bad Boys

According to Shakespeare’s book, Fleming almost spoiled a take of the iconic beach scene. He was leading two friends on a walk along Laughing Waters — the name of the beach where the scene was filmed — and almost walked into the shot.

Director Terence Young yelled at them to “Lie down!” which they did. Shakespeare writes: “The composer Monty Norman had arrived in Jamaica to write the music and he watched Young shout at them — ‘They were shooed off like little boys.’

"Ian and his friends were left lying behind a dune, forgotten, until someone remembered to release them an hour later.”

That's Fleming, right, with Andress and Connery.

Chemistry, Raw Chemistry

What comes through most of all in the publicity photos for Dr. No is the radiant, transcendent chemistry between Connery and Andress. Which, we suppose, was exactly the idea.

"He was very protective towards me, he was adorable, fantastic," Andress said in a 2020 interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera after Connery's death at 90. "He adored women, He was undoubtedly very much a man.''

She added: “We spent many evenings together and he would invite me everywhere, Monte Carlo, London, New York, from when we met until now we always remained friends. Friends, friends.'"

At Sea

Andress and Connery are all smiles, relaxing on a boat offshore.

Among other jobs prior to taking on his most famous role, Connery was a naval boxer, lifeguard, and art class model, according to Shakespeare's Ian Fleming: The Complete Man.

Director Terence Young at Work

Making the film wasn't all fun in the sun — here are Connery and Andress discussing a scene with director Terence Young.

Young not only brought Bond to the screen for the first time with Dr. No, but directed the second 007 film, From Russia With Love, released a year after the first film, in 1963.

Guy Hamilton directed the third film, Goldfinger, but Young returned for his third and final Bond film, Thunderball, in 1965. It's safe to say that no director did more to shape the aesthetic of the early franchise.

Keep Your Friends Close

Sean Connery as Bond and John Kitzmiller as Quarrel.

When 007 arrives in Jamaica to investigate the murder of M16 Station Chief John Strangways, he is tailed by Quarrel — but Quarrel soon turns out to be aiding the CIA.

He soon introduces Bond to Felix Leiter, a CIA operative who becomes one of James' closest friends. The first actor to play him was future Hawaii Five-O star Jack Lord.

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress

The actors show off their athleticism and chemistry while frolicking on a Jamaican beach during filming.

Nice work if you can get it.

Andress told Corriere della Sera that when she joined the film, “I didn't know Sean, and I thought it would be my first film and maybe my last.

"But instead it took off, the chemistry between us worked and it was the perfect combination.”

Ursula Andress and Sean Connery

Did they have any idea people would be watching their movie and writing about them, more than 60 years later? Or did it just seem like a fun, beachy spy thriller? You have to wonder.

''It was a very small budget production and I agreed to do it thinking not many people would see it," Andress told Corriere della Sera.