"Hey Al...Al....Wherever you are don't hold it against me...." - Rodney
Max Goldsmith, known professionally as Marc Lawrence, was born on the 17th of February, 1910, in New York.
He was an American actor, director, writer and producer, who worked on over 225 film and television productions between 1932 and 2003.
His passion for acting began during his school years when he performed in theatre plays. This led to him pursuing studies in dramatic arts and he ultimately received a scholarship to Eva Le Gallienne’s Repertory Theatre. Often portraying the role of a gangster or a mob boss, Marc’s onscreen career first began in the early 1930’s, when he appeared in a number of American films such as “If I Had a Million” (1932), “Gambling Ship” (1933), “Straight is the Way” (1934) and ” ‘G’ Men” (1935). He was a close friend of fellow actor John Garfield and the pair worked together in several stage plays and were both signed by Columbia Pictures.
Lawrence would go on to have a prolific career, accumulating over 170 film credits to his name including two James Bond films “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971) and “The Man With The Golden Gun” (1974), where he portrayed a mob role in both. Some of his other notable credits include: “Peter Gunn” (1959), “The Untouchables” (1960-63), “Johnny Cool” (1965), “The Kremlin Letter” (1970), “Marathon Man” (1976), “Wonder Woman” (1979), “The Dukes of Hazzard” (1979), “The A-Team” (1986), “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1989) and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” (2003).
He directed several films and television shows including “M Squad” (1960), “Lawman” (1960-61), “77 Sunset Strip” (1962), as well as producing and directing “Nightmare in the Sun” in 1965 and “Daddy’s Deadly Darling” in 1973.
In theatre he worked on a number of Broadway productions including ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1930), ‘The Tree’ (1932) and ‘The Survivors’ (1948). He also starred in several British plays including ‘A View from the Bridge’ in 1957.
As a writer, he published his autobiography ‘Long Time No See: Confessions of a Hollywood Gangster‘ in 1991.
Marc Lawrence passed away on the 28th of November, 2005, aged 95.
In “The Man With The Golden Gun", the character of Rodney is portrayed by Marc Lawrence.
Rodney is an American gangster who is hired by Nick Nack to assassinate his employer Francisco Scaramanga. The benefit of his death would be that he would inherit all of his boss's luxuries and possessions.
The gangster appears in the pre-title sequence of the film and is seen arriving on Scaramanga's secret island with a hand gun. After being handed half the money by Nick Nack and brought into the gymnasium room, Rodney experiences psychological confusion as he is taken through the funhouse and all it's trickeries.
Eventually, Scaramanga outwits his opponent and kills him with a clean shot from his golden gun.
There are several examples of Marc’s signature and handwriting on display:
The first still is a very rare contact sheet photo from “The Man With The Golden Gun”, where he is portraying the role of Rodney. It was signed in 1975 for an American collector. A common trait was that he would often write his name and a note on the back of a photo. On this example, he has written his name and mentioned his next film “Marathon Man”.
The second still is a publicity shot with Britt Ekland, and was signed in the early 2000’s. You can see how his autograph has changed quite dramatically after several years of attending film conventions! Again on the reverse he has neatly written his name. Here you can also see how his handwriting has become more ‘streamlined’, yet retains certain characteristics such as the bottom loop of the the letter ‘L’.
His autograph has varied quite considerably in the early part of his career when he signed with his full name, but later examples such as the one shown above are usually very consistent in flow and style.
Be aware that a number of cheap forgeries have been sold in large quantities on Ebay from a known German counterfeiter, usually in blue sharpie on a photo showing the character Rodney from “The Man With The Golden Gun”, standing on the beach, or sat on the chair in the funhouse. These can be very difficult to tell apart from a genuine autograph of Marc Lawrence but close analysis has shown a very different flow when compared to a known genuine example.
This is Marc's second appearance in a James Bond film, having previously appeared as a Slumber Inc. attendant in "Diamonds Are Forever".
Although unverified, it is possible that Rodney is the same character who previously appeared in "Diamonds Are Forever", as both have a very similar appearance and speech.
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