Daniel Craig as James Bond (Columbia Pictures)
If you've taken a look at the early reviews for the new James Bond flick, "Skyfall," you'll see that critics are gushing over the 23rd installment of the franchise and over Daniel Craig's portrayal of the tuxedo-wearing, martini-drinking, secret agent ladies' man. It's almost as if Craig has James Bond in his blood. And, it turns out, he kind of does.
Genealogy website Ancestry.com has told omg! from Yahoo! exclusively that the 44-year-old British leading man is actually related to James Bond, the man author Ian Fleming named the iconic character after when he wrote his first novel, Casino Royale back in 1953.
[Related: Get more scoop on 'Skyfall' on Yahoo! Movies]
As die-hard 007 fans know, the real James Bond wasn't an international spy and man of mystery, however, but, actually a bird expert. (Yes, really.) Fleming, an avid bird watcher himself, was familiar with ornithologist (a fancy name for one who studies birds) James Bond, author of the book Birds of the West Indies, and decided to use the name to help create the now-famous character. "When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument," Fleming told The New Yorker in 1962. "When I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard."
[Related: Daniel Craig talks working with Judy Dench (Video)]
(L-R) Bond, The Duke of Lancaster, and Craig.
According to Ancestry.com, the connection is a royal one: Craig and the late Bond, who died in 1989, are related through John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, who is also the son of King Edward III of England. And the actor's royal lineage doesn't stop there. He's also related to the Queen of England and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury.
"While we were researching Daniel Craig's family history, we noticed that some of the names and places in his tree resembled names from James Bond's tree. We discovered a fascinating connection between him and the actual bird-watching James Bond — through English royalty," says Michelle Ercanbrack, Ancestry.com's family historian. "The great thing about family history is you never know what you might find."
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