The James Bond phenomenon has enthralled the audiences for 50 years now and the success story continues to grow with a horde of superstars having played the cult role, mouthing the famous dialogue: “My name is Bond…James Bond”, bringing alive Ian Fleming’s larger-than-life fictitious character.

In the illustrious 50 years of James Bond franchise, it has come to grow to become worth an estimated ÂŁ1 billion. The producers of the original James Bond franchise Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli feel that the success formula of the franchise was refreshing the content of the original formula while retaining the basics.

Despite the longevity of the James Bond franchise, the films have had many ‘anti-climax’ experiences, just like its protagonist, with personal rifts, financial woes and multiple incarnations acting as obstacles over the 50 years.

With 22 films and six actors having played James Bond, the spy has come to become a worldwide phenomenon, with the cars, gadgets and girls creating a genre of its own.

Surprisingly, Ian Fleming’s original books were not received particularly well by critics. Citing the reasons behind the rejection, the author’s niece Kate Grimond said, “They were rather ahead of their time. He wrote in very short sentences and this was mocked at the time but it’s been emulated ever since.”

Over the years, the fictitious character James Bond underwent transformation with each of the six actors giving a different dimension to the Bond phenomenon, sometimes, moving away from Fleming’s depiction of Bond as a dark and brooding secret agent.

The latest James Bond being Daniel Craig claims to have gone back to Ian Fleming’s portrayal of the 007 spy in the upcoming James Bond flick ‘Skyfall’ which releases on October 26.