Maurice Binder was a renowned American film title designer, best known for his work on 16 James Bond films, starting with Dr. No in 1962. He was born on December 4, 1918, in New York City, but spent most of his career in Britain from the 1950s onwards.
Binder's early work included directing two short films in the Meet Mister Baby series in 1951, which were later preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015. He designed his first film title sequence for Stanley Donen's Indiscreet in 1958, and went on to work with Donen on several other films, including Charade and Arabesque.
The Bond producers approached Binder after being impressed by his title designs for The Grass Is Greener in 1960. He created the iconic gun barrel sequence for the opening titles of Dr. No, which has since become a staple of the James Bond franchise. The sequence was originally planned to feature a camera sighted down the barrel of a gun, but technical issues led to the use of a pinhole camera instead.
Binder described the genesis of the gun barrel sequence in an interview, stating that it was created in a hurry and was originally intended to feature James Bond walking through and firing a gun, with blood splattering on screen. The sequence was a hit with the producers, and has since become an iconic part of the James Bond franchise.
Binder's work on the James Bond films also featured women performing a variety of activities, such as dancing, jumping on a trampoline, or shooting weapons. He designed the opening and closing sequences for several other films, including The Mouse That Roared, The Long Ships, and The Day the Fish Came Out.
Binder was also a producer and visual consultant on several other films, including The Passage, Dracula, and Oxford Blues. He died on April 9, 1991, at the age of 72, due to complications from lung cancer.
