Gabriele Ferzetti the leading roles. Ferzetti's most important performance in 1969, and arguably the role he is most associated with, internationally, was his role as distinguished organized crime boss Marc-Ange Draco in the 1969 James Bond feature "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Directed by Peter Hunt, Ferzetti plays the father of Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), who promises James Bond (George Lazenby) a handsome dowry for marrying her; they fall in love and marry anyway. Hunt had spotted Ferzetti in an Italian film, which he and Harry Saltzman were supposed to be reviewing another actor in, and both were immediately drawn to
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel) they complained about "the consumer snobbery of his caddish hero". The critic mourned that even worse was to follow, however, when "Bond is threatened with what, for an international cad, would clearly be a fate worse than death: matrimony". However, eventually a "deus ex machina (the machine, reassuringly, is a lethal red Maserati) ... saves James Bond from his better self." Serialisation (1963) "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was serialised in the April, May and June 1963 issues of "Playboy". Comic strip (1964–65) Ian Fleming's 1963 novel was adapted as a daily comic strip published in the "Daily Express" newspaper,