Q James Bond: The Quartermaster, His Actors and Every Film

Q is the quartermaster of the Bond series, the equipment chief who briefs James Bond on his gadgets before a mission and then watches them get damaged. The letter is generally read as short for quartermaster, the officer who supplies kit, rather than as an initial of a name. Think of him as the mechanic of the franchise: the person who hands over the car keys and tells you, with some feeling, to bring the car back.

The character has carried three credited names. Dr. No (1962), directed by Terence Young, credits Peter Burton as Major Boothroyd. The UK release was reported as 7 October 1962 and the US release as 8 May 1963, both reported rather than confirmed. Desmond Llewelyn is credited as Major Boothroyd in From Russia with Love and as Q from Goldfinger onward. The unofficial Never Say Never Again credits Alec McCowen as Q 'Algy' Algernon.

Who plays Q in James Bond? Here is the order of the actors:

• Peter Burton, as Major Boothroyd in Dr. No.
• Desmond Llewelyn, as Major Boothroyd in From Russia with Love and as Q from Goldfinger to The World Is Not Enough.
• Alec McCowen, as Q 'Algy' Algernon in the non EON Never Say Never Again.
• John Cleese, as Q in Die Another Day, after playing R in the film before.
• Ben Whishaw, as Q in Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die.

All of them are men. If you want the character in context, start with the James Bond character page, then come back to see who keeps him supplied.

Q's story arc is a relay between five actors across 22 films rather than a single plotline, starting with Peter Burton as Major Boothroyd in Dr. No (1962). Desmond Llewelyn then holds the job through seventeen films, from From Russia with Love (as Boothroyd) and Goldfinger to The World Is Not Enough, and the credits read simply Q from Goldfinger onward.

The job grows beyond the briefing room as the series goes on. In The Man with the Golden Gun, M and Q send Bond to recover the Solex Agitator. In For Your Eyes Only, Bond and Q use a face matching device to name the man behind a killing. In Octopussy, a tracking device in the Fabergé egg is how Bond learns who Kamal Khan works with. In A View to a Kill, Q examines a stolen microchip and finds it copies a Zorin Industries design.

The biggest step out of the workshop comes in Licence to Kill, where Q comes to help Bond unofficially after Bond is suspended and loses his license to kill, and he fights back from inside Sanchez's operation.

After Llewelyn, John Cleese moves from R to Q in Die Another Day. Ben Whishaw is a new, younger Q from Skyfall (2012), directed by Sam Mendes, with a UK premiere on 23 October 2012 and a UK release on 26 October 2012. The US release followed on 9 November 2012 (reported). Whishaw carries the part through Spectre, where he gives quiet help to Bond and shuts down the Nine Eyes surveillance scheme, and on to No Time to Die.

Q is tied most closely to James Bond, because every gadget scene is really a conversation between a supplier and a customer who will not return the goods. The credits list Q beside Bond in every film he appears in, and the pairing has outlasted six Bond actors from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig.

The second tie is to M. Q shares the screen with Bernard Lee's M in Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger and Thunderball, with Robert Brown's M in Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, and with Judi Dench's M in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Skyfall. Ralph Fiennes is credited as M only in Spectre and No Time to Die, where Q works under him; in Skyfall the credits name Fiennes's character Gareth Mallory.

The third is Miss Moneypenny. In Spectre, Bond follows the trail to Rome with quiet help from Moneypenny and Q, the pair acting as his reluctant support team inside a service that has suspended him.

There is also a line of succession. John Cleese's R appears beside Llewelyn in The World Is Not Enough, and Cleese then takes over as Q in the next film, so the handover is written into the credits.

Q survives every film he appears in, and his last credited appearance so far is Ben Whishaw in No Time to Die. The plot of that film ends with Bond staying behind on the island as the missiles hit and dying, and his MI6 colleagues raise a glass to his memory in London, so Q is left to carry on without 007.

The real world gave the character a harder end. Desmond Llewelyn died in a car crash on 19 December 1999 at age 85, shortly after The World Is Not Enough, which was the last of his 17 Bond appearances, according to CBS News. In The World Is Not Enough, the scene with R shows Llewelyn and his successor sharing the screen. When MI6 watches Bond and Christmas Jones on a satellite feed, R brushes the picture off as a technical glitch.

The job passed to John Cleese in Die Another Day and then to Ben Whishaw. Q has not been announced for the next Bond film. The untitled Bond 26 has no title, release date or confirmed cast, and Amazon MGM has confirmed none of the names reported in connection with the lead role.

Q's best moments are the scenes where his workshop drives the plot, led by the Nine Eyes shutdown in Spectre. This ranking is my own opinion.

1. Spectre, the Nine Eyes shutdown. Whishaw's finest hour comes when Q shuts Nine Eyes down in London, which gives the quartermaster a real part in the finale rather than a scene before the mission.

2. Licence to Kill, the unofficial favor. This is the most human version of the character. Bond has lost his license to kill, and Q turns up to help anyway, working with Bond from inside Sanchez's operation.

3. A View to a Kill, the chip. Q reads a stolen microchip and finds it is a copy of a Zorin Industries part. That is detective work from a workshop, and it points Bond at Max Zorin.

4. The World Is Not Enough, the handover. Llewelyn and John Cleese's R share the scene, and for fans who know what followed, it reads as the quiet passing of the job.

Llewelyn's run is the series' longest running joke and also its warmest. Whishaw's Q is the better colleague, and Llewelyn's Q is the better foil. To watch these scenes in sequence, follow the James Bond movies in order guide.