British film director Guy Hamilton, best known for directing Goldfinger and three other James Bond films, has died aged 93.
The Paris-born film-maker scored a massive international hit with the 1964 film, the third in the Bond series.
The film made a star of Sir Sean Connery and sparked a craze for spy films and television series - as well as Bond merchandise - across the world.
Hamilton went on to make three more Bond films: Diamonds Are Forever in 1971, and the first two Sir Roger Moore entries, Live And Let Die (1973) and The Man With The Golden Gun (1974).
On the set of The Man With The Golden Gun. Pic: Everett/REX/Shutterstock
Reacting to his death, Sir Roger tweeted: "Incredibly, incredibly saddened to hear the wonderful director Guy Hamilton has gone to the great cutting room in the sky. 2016 is horrid."
Hamilton cut his teeth working for the director Sir Carol Reed on films including The Fallen Idol and The Outcast Of The Islands.
Incredibly, incredibly saddened to hear the wonderful director Guy Hamilton has gone to the great cutting room in the sky. 2016 is horrid.
— Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) April 21, 2016
On Sir Carol's masterpiece The Third Man, as well as acting as assistant director, Hamilton stood in for Orson Welles' shadow during the famous chase scenes through Vienna.
In 1999 the British Film Institute named The Third Man the greatest British film ever made.
Hamilton's other movies as director included Harry Palmer spy thriller Funeral In Berlin and war epic The Battle Of Britain, both starring Sir Michael Caine, as well as two Agatha Christie adaptations, Evil Under The Sun and The Mirror Crack'd.
At one point he was reputedly lined up to make Superman with Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando but was replaced.
He was married twice, first to actress Naomi Chance and he later married French actress Kerima, whom he met on Outcast Of The Islands.
Hamilton's own experiences during the Second World War would have provided a valuable personal insight both into his war movies and his films about undercover agents.
In an interview with The Independent in 2002, he described being left behind in Nazi-occupied France while serving with a clandestine unit dedicated to rescuing stranded British airmen.
After being rescued by the French Resistance, but on the run from the Nazis who were aware of his presence in Brittany, his hosts took him to play skittles in a pub packed with German soldiers.
He recalled: "On the way out, the lady of the estaminet said to the Resistance boys, 'Your friend isn't from round here, is he?'
"They said I was from Brest. 'Oh, that explains it,' she said, 'because he's got a slight accent, I couldn't place it'.
"The three Resistance guys thought it was hilariously funny. My amusement was fairly limited."
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