Born in New York in 1925, Maurice Binder worked his way up at Macy’s Department store to become an art-director. After serving in WOII he moved to the West Coast of the US where he worked in film promotion. In the late 1950s he oversaw the West Coast Advertising Department of Columbia Pictures. Binder also started working with director Stanley Donen designing outstanding title sequences for The Grass is Greener (1960), Surprise Package (1960), Charade (1963) and Arabesque (1966), among others.
Over the course of his carrier, Binder designed campaigns, Main Titles and coming attraction trailers for hundreds of films. Much of his work remains unknown, but some titles became legendary, such as his sexy intro for Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968) and Fathom (Leslie H. Martinson, 1967). But he became most famous for perfecting the signature style of the Bond movie titles, creating an exciting fusion of danger, sex and fun. The people who knew Maurice Binder describe him as a charming ladies man with a special talent for talking models out of their clothes. A skill that he would develop over the next years of designing Bond titles. Binder designed the Main Titles for 14 out of 16 Bond films up until his death in 1991.
