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GREG BECHTLOFF assesses Pierce Brosnan’s four film tenure as the James Bond of the Nineties, arguably the most popular and successful actor  to inhabit the role since Sean Connery.

BILLION DOLLAR BOND! was originally available exclusively to subscribers of 007 MAGAZINE OnLine as part of 007 MAGAZINE Issue #49 in August 2006. Due to its length, the feature was not included in the printed edition of Issue #49 in February 2018; but was published as a standalone 007 MAGAZINE Special Publication in May 2018, enhanced with many rare and never-before seen photographs from Pierce Brosnan's four James Bond films.

The role itself is pedigreed in that it had a life before celluloid in the novels of Ian Fleming. Fleming’s James Bond is an Englishman (of Scottish descent) in his mid-thirties with black hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his face. Bond is an agent of the British Secret Service. He is an orphan who lives in London and travels the globe on missions for his country. He has many love affairs with women but is not married. Bond dresses well, eats well and is expert in such pursuits as golf and cards. Fleming’s Bond is described by another character to resemble the American songwriter Hoagy Carmichael.

The generic characteristics for casting the cinematic James Bond more or less followed these guidelines; Bond is tall, dark and handsome although the ‘dark’ part has been fudged a bit in the cases of Roger Moore and more recently Daniel Craig. The film Bond is in the thirty-to-forty something age range. Bond actors are ‘British’ as opposed to the Englishman of the Fleming novels. This means that a Bond actor can hail from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and even Commonwealth countries such as Australia. At a pinch it can be an American actor as it almost was with John Gavin in 1970. James Bond is portrayed as English in the films even though most of the actors who have played him are not.

Also important for a James Bond actor is his profile before being cast as Bond. A high wattage star has never been cast as Bond. Established actors such as Cary Grant, James Mason, Burt Reynolds and Michael Caine have all been floated and/or offered the role at various times in the series. The practice though has been to cast a relative or total unknown and let the role make them a star. By ‘relative’ we also mean actors who may be known as stars in one medium or country but not known around the world. This would include the television careers of Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, which incidentally made both actors familiar to American audiences, a vital element in casting a successful James Bond.

It is certainly no secret that the first cinematic James Bond, Sean Connery was a success in the role. The producers found in Sean Connery the successor to Clark Gable; a vital, charismatic man’s man who was capable of exuding danger when called upon. Connery was so successful in the role that many people believed that the Bond character could not survive his departure. Much to the personal chagrin of Sean Connery, many people also believed that his persona was the same as James Bond’s. It isn’t and never was. This was not a thought shared by Ian Fleming who initially was not pleased at the casting of Sean Connery in Dr. No. Fleming eventually came round and in fact adapted the literary Bond to some of Connery’s characteristics, namely a Scottish past. If he had had his way though, Fleming would have gone with a more English actor in the David Niven mould.

When Connery did leave in 1967 after the release of You Only Live Twice, Australian model George Lazenby took over the James Bond role for one film. Lazenby was younger than Connery was when he became Bond but had the rugged good looks that gave him an older, harder look than Connery. Lazenby did turn in a decent performance in an otherwise outstanding Bond film but many filmgoers and critics dubbed it a failure in the belief that Lazenby was only emulating Connery/Bond rather than creating a new interpretation of the character. Even though the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service did well at the box office and was a triumphant Ian Fleming adaptation, efforts were made to bring Connery back. Connery did return for one film only in Diamonds Are Forever, and in 1973 the role passed onto Englishman Roger Moore, who had been eyed as a potential James Bond from the very beginning of the series.

At the time of Roger Moore’s retirement from the role in 1986, Pierce Brosnan was the obvious choice to take over. In fact Brosnan was cast as Bond for the 1987 film The Living Daylights but had to pull out over a contractual problem with his American television series Remington Steele.

Cast instead was Welsh actor Timothy Dalton who had built a solid reputation shuttling between the stage, film and television, usually in historical or literary dramas. Dalton bravely drew his Bond interpretation from the character Ian Fleming sketched in the novels rather than emulating Connery or Moore. This made for interesting viewing for Fleming fans but the general public never really embraced Dalton’s take on the role. Timothy Dalton’s two films suffered from poor marketing which combined with his unloved interpretation of Bond marked his tenure as a failure. In fact it is still murky to this day as to whether Dalton was fired from the role or stepped aside voluntarily.

One important point to make with the Timothy Dalton approach was that the James Bond of the cinema and the James Bond of the novels had grown far apart by the time Dalton took on the role.

All of which brings us to Pierce Brosnan’s tenure in the role. Coinciding with legal problems that stopped the Bond film series between 1990 and 1993, the casting of Pierce Brosnan in 1994 signalled that the Bond series was poised for a large scale comeback. Brosnan said at his first press conference as the new 007 that his Bond would be “flinty” and efforts would be made to peel back some of the character’s layers to reveal the inner demons that drive Bond.

To begin with though, Pierce Brosnan was physically a very good fit for James Bond. Tall and lean, Brosnan also had the dark hair and blue eyes that Ian Fleming wrote in the novels. Brosnan also had that comma of black hair that would forever fall over his right eye. After a mishap on the set of Tomorrow Never Dies, Brosnan now even had a small scar on his face.