Maurice Binder

American visual designer, creator of the famed opening title sequences of the James Bond movies. A native New Yorker, Binder's early work included designing advertisements and catalogs for Macy's department store. During the Second World War, he worked at Universal Studios, then became West Coast art director for Columbia Pictures. Director Stanley Donen hired Binder to create main titles for Indiscreet (1958) and used him thereafter in similar capacity on most of his films. One of them, The Grass Is Greener (1960), caught the attention of James Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, who hired Binder for the first Bond picture, Dr. No (1962). The distinctive style of the Bond main titles became a much-admired and much-parodied tradition. Binder worked up until his final illness and death in 1991 at 65.