The Garden of Forking Paths

The role has been played by four different actors over the course of the franchise in the major canon, not off brand James Bond movies because there are a couple of James Bond movies that weren't part of the official group. The first M died of cancer in 1981, unfortunately, while for your eyes only was being filmed, which is why M is listed as on leave. Robert Brown was the nice guy M, the second M that replaced after that, who was known for being soft and people said he smiled too much. She had the much more severe Dame Judy Dench, who had the longest tenure as M. And currently the role is held by Ralph Fiennes, who plays the character Gareth