PIERCE BROSNAN
SUAVE AND SMOOTH

Tomorrow Never Dies, the latest in the Bond franchise, continues Brosnan’s successful run as Bond, and is Brosnan’s second big budget movie within the space of a year. The first was Dante’s Peak, which was one of 1997’s biggest international hits. Dante’s Peak came on the heels of Brosnan’s teaming up with Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges in The Mirror Has Two Faces and his cameo role in Tim Burton’s sci-fi spoof, Mars Attacks!

But it was the hit TV comedy-detective series, Remington Steele, in which he played a charming and courageous, but often inept private eye, which first put him on the world stage in the mid-’80s. But ironically, it was his commitment to Remington Steele which prevented him from accepting the role of James Bond years ago, despite public opinion which was strongly in favour of seeing Pierce Brosnan succeed Roger Moore as 007. Subsequently, the role went to Timothy Dalton.

But it seems as if fate had decreed that Brosnan would be Bond, come what may. Brosnan did not fade out of sight for a moment. On the contrary, he went on to bag Hollywood projects with greater international visibility, such as his roles in Mrs Doubtfire opposite Robin Williams and Sally Field, in Warren Beatty’s Love Affair opposite Annette Bening and the hit sci-fi chiller, Lawnmower Man. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, Timothy Dalton had failed to stimulate audiences with his portrayal of James Bond. And by the time Golden Eye came up in 1994, Brosnan was free from his contractual obligations to the producers of Remington Steele, and at liberty to take on the role of the famous spy.

Between his stints as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan has used his superstardom to good effect. Instead of stagnating in typical roles, he ventured adventurously into production, launching Irish Dream Time Inc. with a modest production in Ireland, entitled The Nephew.

Now, with the success of Tomorrow Never Dies, it looks like the sky is the limit for Pierce.