Felix Leiter appears for the fourth time in EON Productions' 1971 James Bond film Diamonds are Forever and was portrayed by actor Norman Burton. He was the fourth of seven men to play the iconic role of Leiter officially on screen.
Film biography[]
James Bond encounters Leiter whilst infiltrating the a diamond smuggling pipeline. After killing diamond smuggler Peter Franks, Bond swaps identities with the man and uses his corpse to smuggle African diamonds into the United States. At Los Angeles International Airport, James Bond meets Felix (posing as a customs official) and is taken by mafia hoods to a funeral parlour (the next link in the pipeline) where the body is cremated and the diamonds extracted. After passing the diamonds on, 007 is the victim of an assassination attempt, and only survives due to Leiter's prior swapping of the real diamonds with fakes. Bond telephones Leiter and informs him to bring the real merchandise quickly.
On Ernst Stavro Blofeld's California oil rig, Leiter and the CIA begin a helicopter attack to assist Bond. After foiling Blofeld's plot they rescue both Bond and Tiffany Case.
