Back in the 1960s Sean Connery starred in five James Bond movies before Australian actor George Lazenby played 007 once in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
After he pulled out of a seven picture deal, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli were looking for a new Bond star – and West fit the bill.
Now in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, West’s Batman co-star Ward has revealed why the late actor turned down taking up the License to Kill.
The Robin star, who was promoting West’s posthumous Batman movie, said: “Yes he actually turned the role down and the reason why [is] he thought from a technical stand point that it should be a Brit that plays the role.”
Ward continued: “I think he would have been great, he would have been fabulous.
“He would have been closer, in my opinion, to Sean Connery, even than Roger Moore. Sean has even more of that satirical twinkle in the eye.”
In the end Bond producers managed to persuade Connery to return for one more official outing in the form of 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever.
After that Sir Roger Moore took on Bond for seven movies, introducing a more tongue-in-cheek take on the character.
It’s weird to think that if West had said yes we may never have seen a Roger Moore Bond movie.
Sadly West and Moore died just a few weeks apart in May and June of this year.