How Did James Bond’s Parents Die?

James Bond’s journey to the Secret Service began when he was a child. In the novels by Ian Fleming, Andrew and Monique Delacroix Bond die in a climbing accident, leaving him an orphan to live with his aunt, Miss Chairman Bond. That is relatively short-lived before he attends Eton College as a pre-teen. He then moves on to study at his father’s college, Fettes. Eventually, his orphan heritage lands him in the British Secret Service, where Vesper Lynd comments in «Casino Royale» that being an orphan fits his job. 

«And that makes perfect sense since MI6 looks for maladjusted young men who give little thought to sacrificing others in order to protect queen and country. You know … former SAS types with easy smiles and expensive watches.» The «James Bond» movies double down on the idea of his parents’ deaths being his origin story by tying it in with another moment from his past and connecting it to his present. After the climbing accident, Bond went to live with Hannes Oberhauser. Oberhauser was a ski instructor who took Bond in, becoming a foster father and teaching him to ski. 

This leads his son, Franz Oberhauser, to become jealous of the two and, as revealed in «Spectre,» orchestrate his father’s death and embark on the path to becoming Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bond’s archnemesis and the leader of a villainous empire.