Arrogant or insane?

Maybe he was afraid of being typecast.

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He didn't turn it down. They got Sean Connery back and bought out his contract. By the time Connery gave it up again, Lazenby had moved on to other projects and they went with Roger Moore.

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/21631960-anyone-follow-james-bond-films-

Lazenby was a severe nutcase at the time. The biggest reason he didn't want to do another Bond? He wanted to go back to modeling. Everyone thinks he was fired and that his one Bond film was flop. Neither are true. They offered him something like a five Bond film deal. He's the one that turned them down. Plus he was one of those actors that liked to give notes. Diana Rigg hated him for it. It was his first film for fucks sake. Rigg just despised him. She made that clear in interviews even while they were still filming.

—Anonymous

reply 47 a day ago

Lazenby informed Brocolli and Slatzman at appr. half of the filming of OHMSS that he will quit. He already was wearing a beard when the movies music was still on recording. So Connery wasnt part of the problem. Lazenby simply didnt wanted to play Bond anymore.

And yes, that was a incredible stupid decision and later Lazenby stated that it was his own fault and a major mistake.

Maybe both, but who cares? He played Bond on his terms, and quit on his terms. Lazenby was James Bond. He's not even really acting in OHMSS. He's just being himself, and it works.

There are different reasons proposed for why he left the role. But when you think about the 70s which is the decade he would have played Bond in multiple films, it's a pretty weak decade for Bond. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and didn't want to be in a bunch of mediocre movies.