According to the actor’s great-nephew, Guy Masterson, “My uncle told me that Ian Fleming had approached him, asking him to play Bond. 

“But, back then, in 1959, Bond was a new concept, and nobody had any idea it would be as big as it became. My uncle told me that he thought it was going to be just another movie.

“No matter how big Bond became, he never said he regretted missing out on the role. Had Burton played Bond, I think he would have been absolutely fantastic.”

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 2010, the four-time Academy Award winner said he was “offered pretty good money to do James Bond if I would take on the role. This was after Sean Connery left.

“My lawyer represented [then-007 producers] the Broccolis, and he came and said, ‘They would love to have you.’ But to me, well, that was somebody else’s gig. That’s Sean’s deal. It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it”.