"There can be forever many Bonds, but only one Q. I've lost a great friend, someone who I will miss dearly, someone easy to cry for. And I think the whole world will feel the same. He was a gentle gentleman, this lovely man. He went the way he would have liked, sitting at the controls." -- Pierce Brosnan, December 20, 1999

Desmond Llewelyn

Born: September 12, 1914; Wales, UK

Died: December 19, 1999; Firle, East Sussex, England, road accident.

An Appreciation by Bruce Feirstein, from Salon.com.

A note from the Llewelyn family to the fans.

Buy the book Q was hawking when he was killed.

Desmond Llewelyn's page at IMDb.

News on the Llewelyn funeral.

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Goldfinger shows the gadget by which all other Bond gadgets are judged -- the Aston Martin DB5 with the ejector seat. "Now at the top of the gearstick you'll find a little red button. Whatever you do don't touch it." I don't have to explain what that button does, and Q's reply set the tone for the interaction with 007 over the years. After Connery's Bond exclaims "You're joking," the exasperated inventor says, "I never joke about my work 007."

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Private Tragedy: Llewelyn's wife of 61 years, Pamela, suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

Q and Desmond

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Q Branch - Who is Q?

Jan Howells caught up with the gadget wizard himself 'Q' (actor Desmond Llewelyn), who has appeared in no less than 16 Bond adventures.

On the subject of the new film Llewelyn, whose rich tones have that ring of the Gielgud school of acting about them is giving away nothing.
"There's a whole new set of gadgets," he says non-committedly.

So who creates all the wonderful gadgets that are in the Bond movies?
"Some, such as the underwater car in The Spy Who Loved Me and the underwater camera in Thunderball are real prototypes," he explains. "Some of these are commercialised, others are made up by the scriptwriters."

And has he got a favourite movie gadget?
"I was quite fond of the grenade-in-a-pen in GoldenEye; that was very clever."

But is Llewelyn a gadget man in real life?
"Absolutely not," he laughs, "I can't work them and I have absolutely no interest in them; I am an actor. I just arrive on set and say my lines."

So he doesn't know his URL from his elbow, then?

"Computers? No, and I don't even no what that [the Net] is, I am very much a telephone and letter man," he explains.

But doesn't he get lots of fan mail from Bond fanatics around the world who think he is a fellow nerd.
"In the early days I used to get letters from schoolboys wanting know how to blow up their schools and so on, but now I think it has been fairly well publicised that in real life I'm allergic to gadgets. They just don't work for me, not even those plastic cards for hotel room doors."

But what's Q's story? Llewelyn has tried to slip some clues in each picture, look again at the ties he wears. Radley, Trinity College, MCC, Newport rugby club and the Fire Brigade College have all had there club ties worn by Q.
"I have worn all the recognised club ties for these things over the years, but not that many people have noticed them."

This Interview was first published in Computer Life

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The lasting impact of Q.

Fan memories of Desmond Llewelyn.

Obituary

Remembering Desmond Llewelyn.

A Death in the Family.

Llewelyn Death: BBC Report