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Reginald Bernard John Gadney (20 January 1941 – 1 May 2018) 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, directed by Don Boyd 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.
Whilst in the army, Gadney served in Libya, France and Norway. The latter post saw him working as an attaché 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. 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." Gadney left the active list of the Coldstream Guards in 1962, but remained on the reserve of officers until 1968.
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. He also worked as the deputy controller of the National Film Theatre.
Gadney won a BAFTA in 1983 for his seven-part television serial about John F. Kennedy starring Martin Sheen. 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. It was Dance's suggestion that Gadney play the real-life character of James Bond, who, in the screenplay, Fleming found birdwatching on his estate.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. 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. He also adapted Iris Murdoch novel The Bell and Minette Walters novel The Sculptress for television.
He died of pancreatic cancer in early May 2018 and his funeral was held on 22 May 2018 at St Marylebone Parish Church.
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