Reg Gadney

Reginald Bernard John Gadney (20 January 1941 – 1 May 2018)[1] was a painter, thriller-writer and an occasional screenwriter or screenplay adaptor. Gadney was also an officer in the Coldstream Guards in the 1960s and later wrote the biopic screenplay Goldeneye (about author Ian Fleming) which was filmed in 1989 with Charles Dance playing Ian Fleming. Gadney cameoed as the real-life James Bond, the man who lent his name to Fleming's eponymous spy.

Reg Gadney
Born
Reginald Bernard John Gadney

(1941-01-20)20 January 1941
Cross Hills, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died1 May 2018(2018-05-01) (aged 77)
Known forThriller writer
Painter
Lecturer
Art historian
Spouse(s)Fay Maschler
ChildrenTwo
Three stepchildren
Parent(s)
AwardsBAFTA

Life

Gadney, the son of the rugby player, Bernard Gadney, was born during a secondary air raid on 20 January 1941. His was father was the headmaster at Malsis School in Cross Hills, West Riding of Yorkshire, and Gadney was born in Dorm 10[2] in the school when Luftwaffe bombers, returning across the Pennines from a raid in either Liverpool or Manchester, dumped their surplus fuel on the cricket pitch.[3] Gadney was encouraged to paint by his mother, but his early years were entrusted to a German nanny until wartime regulations saw her interned as an "undesirable alien." Gadney attended Dragon School in Oxford and then Stowe in Buckinghamshire before being commissioned into the Coldstream Guards where he formed a lasting friendship with Simon Parker-Bowles.[1] Gadney often joked about his time in the army, stating that it was suggested that it would make a man out of him; Gadney always said that it failed to do that.[4][5]

Whilst in the army, Gadney served in Libya, France and Norway, the latter post saw him working as an attache and he also qualified as an instructor in winter warfare and Arctic survival. His friendship with Parker-Bowles continued throughout their lives, despite them often not living close to one another.[6] Memorably, on one Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, watched by a temporarily crippled Queen Mother, Gadney gave the wrong order and instead of swapping over guards they all marched away at the same time leaving no guard behind. The commander was apoplectic and gave both Gadney and Parker-Bowles a dressing down, but Gadney and Parker-Bowles later received a message from the Queen Mother that stated "...how terribly nice it was to see the ceremony done differently."[1][4]

After leaving the army, Gadney attended St Catharine's College, Cambridge and then won a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later taught at the Royal College of Art becoming a Fellow and Pro-Rector.[7] He also worked as the deputy controller of the National Film Theatre.[8]

Gadney won a BAFTA in 1983 for his seven-part television serial about John F. Kennedy starring Martin Sheen.[7] In 1989, Gadney's screenplay "Goldeneye", a biopic of author Ian Fleming, was shot on location in the Caribbean with Charles Dance playing Fleming. One of Gadney's stipulations was that it should be part filmed in the Caribbean so that he could get a free holiday out of it.[1] It was Dance's suggestion that Gadney play the real-life character of James Bond, who, in the screenplay, Fleming found birdwatching on his Jamaican estate.[note 1] Fleming took the man's name for his fictional character of James Bond. Gadney used to tell people he was the fifth James Bond who he portrayed between Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.[1] He also adapted Iris Murdoch's novel "The Bell" and Minette Walters' novel "The Sculptress" for television.[4]

He died of pancreatic cancer in early May 2018 and his funeral was held on 22 May 2018 at St Marylebone Parish Church.[9]

Personal life

Gadney was married twice; firstly to Annette Kobak and secondly to the restaurant critic Fay Maschler, who he met at a party in 1992. He had two children from his first marriage and three step children from his marriage to Maschler.[1]

Works

Gadney became a full-time writer in 1984, but he still painted, especially portraits in his later life, people he knew personally.[4][6][10]

Screenplays

Books (fiction)
  • "Drawn Blanc" (1970)
  • "Somewhere in England" (1971)
  • "Something worth Fighting For" (1974)
  • "The Cage" (1977)
  • "Just When We are Safest" (1995)
  • "Mother, Son and Holy Ghost" (1999)
  • "The Achilles Heel" (2000)
  • "Strange Police" (2000)[2]
  • "The Scholar of Extortion" (2003)[13]
  • "Immaculate Deception" (2006)
  • "Albert Einstein Speaking" (2018)[14]

Books (fact)
  • "Cry Hungary! Uprising 1956" (1986)
  • "Diana: The Final Journey" (2007)[11]

Notes
  1. In real life, Fleming had met Bond before and owned one of his books, even going so far as writing to Bond to ask his permission to name his fictional spy after the ornithologist.

References
  1. Witherow, John, ed. (21 June 2018). "Obituary - Reg Gadney". The Times (72567). p. 54. ISSN 0140-0460.
  2. "Gadney nearly loses his marbles". Evening Standard. 13 July 2000. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  3. Foster, Robert H (22 June 2018). "Reg Gadney". The Times (72568). p. 54. ISSN 0140-0460.
  4. Ripley, Mike (10 May 2018). "Reg Gadney obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  5. Jennings, Clice (24 January 2013). "Painter, novelist, teacher, screen writer…". fitzrovia.org. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  6. Greenstreet, Rosanna (16 June 1996). "HOW WE MET". The Independent. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  7. "Reg Gadney, academic and screenwriter – obituary". The Telegraph. 17 May 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  8. Quinn, Michael (16 May 2018). "Obituary: Reg Gadney - 'BAFTA winner for Kennedy, starring Martin Sheen'". The Stage. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  9. "The Londoner: Erotic art show's censorship battle". Evening Standard. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  10. "Preview: Reg Gadney New Portraits 2014". Harper's BAZAAR. 29 April 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  11. "Author, screenwriter and Oxford lecturer dies aged 77". thisisoxfordshire. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  12. "Reg Gadney". bfi.org. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  13. Forshaw, Barry (28 July 2003). "The Scholar Of Extortion, by Reg Gadney; As Bad As It Gets,by". The Independent. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  14. "A tribute to R.J. Gadney". canongate.co.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
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