Ian Fleming had two heart attacks during the Thunderball trial, settled, and died nine months later

Fleming worked with the producer Kevin McClory and the screenwriter Jack Whittingham on a Bond film script that was never made^†. Fleming then published the novel Thunderball in 1961. McClory read an advance copy and, with Whittingham, asked the High Court to stop publication. On 24 March 1961 Mr Justice Wilberforce let the book go out, as 32,000 copies were already with booksellers, but left room for a later claim. Two weeks later Fleming had a heart attack. The full trial began on 19 November 1963 and lasted three weeks. Fleming had two heart attacks while it ran. On Ivar Bryce's advice he settled. McClory received the literary and film rights to the screenplay. Fleming kept the novel, credited as "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author," and admitted it reproduced a substantial part of the scripts. Fleming died nine months later, aged 56. McClory co-produced the 1965 Thunderball film and produced Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery in 1983. MGM bought the McClory estate's rights in 2013^†.