Desmond Llewelyn, after being turned down for the police force, trained at RADA, entered films in 1939, was a POW for five years in WW2, and resumed his acting career postwar. He had played about a dozen film roles before being cast as 'Q', James Bond's irascible gadget-dispensing supervisor in From Russia with Love (d. Terence Young, 1963) - and spent the rest of his career in Bond films, dispensing with his Welsh accent for the role. The role brought him fame, but he regretted the loss of other opportunities. He was killed in a car crash. Bibliography Sandy Hernu, 'Q' - the Authorised Biography of Desmond Llewelyn, 1999. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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