Timothy Dalton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name Timothy Peter Dalton
Born March 21, 1946 (age 61)
Colwyn Bay, Wales
Official site
http://www.timothydalton.com/
Notable roles King Philip II of France
Prince Barin
Edward Rochester
James Bond
Neville Sinclair
Rhett Butler
Julius Caesar
Lord Asriel
Simon Skinner
Timothy Peter Dalton (born March 21, 1946[1]) is a Welsh born English actor of stage and screen, best known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989).
Biography
Youth and early career
Born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, to an English father and an American mother, Timothy Dalton is of mixed English and Italian-Irish ancestry. Before he was born, his family moved to Wales; where his father was stationed during World War II. During the late 1940s, as he was reaching four years old, the family moved to Belper, Derbyshire in England. He became interested in acting in his teenage years, and left school in 1964 to enroll in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and tour with the National Youth Theatre in the summer. Dalton did not complete his RADA studies, leaving the academy in 1966 to join the ensemble of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He quickly moved to television, working mainly with BBC and, in 1968, made his film debut in The Lion in Winter, the first of several period dramas.
After a few more films, Dalton took a break in 1971 to concentrate on the theatre, performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and other troupes throughout the world. With the exception of the 1975 film Permission to Kill, he remained a theatre actor until 1978. That year he starred in Sextette, hailing his return to cinema and the beginning of his American career. While in the United States, Dalton worked mainly in television, although he starred in several European films and gave notable performances for the BBC.
James Bond (1987-1994)
In 1986, after Roger Moore's retirement from the role of James Bond, the lean, 6'2" green-eyed Dalton was the first choice to replace Roger Moore, but obligations to the film Brenda Starr and the stage productions of Antony & Cleopatra and The Taming of The Shrew kept him from accepting the role. Sam Neill was then screen-tested for the part of Bond, but was ultimately rejected by Albert Broccoli. Pierce Brosnan was then approached for the role, but was forced by NBC to turn it down (after initially accepting it) because of his commitment to the television revival of Remington Steele. In the ensuing time, Dalton had completed the filming of Brenda Starr and was now able to accept the role of James Bond.
Previously, Dalton had been considered as a replacement for Sean Connery when Connery left the role and offered the role of James Bond four times. In 1968, he was asked to play Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Sean Connery having decided that You Only Live Twice (1967) would be his last Bond film. Dalton turned the offer down, feeling he was too young for the role, and because of what he felt was an imposing legacy left behind by Connery; the role finally went to George Lazenby. During the late 1970s, he was approached again, but he did not favour the direction the movies were taking. As he explained, his idea of Bond was different.[2]. Dalton was also asked to star in For Your Eyes Only (1981), and the producers also considered him for the role in Octopussy (1983), but they finally re-contracted Roger Moore (see Octopussy).
Dalton's first outing as 007, The Living Daylights (1987) was successful, and grossed more than the previous two Bond films with Roger Moore, as well as contemporary box-office rivals such as Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. However, his second film, Licence to Kill (1989), did not perform as well at the US box office, in large part due to a lackluster marketing campaign, after the title of the film was abruptly changed from 'Licence Revoked'.
Since Dalton was contracted to do three Bond movies,[3] the pre-production of his third film began in 1990, in order to be released in 1991. It was rumored that he would make The Property of a Lady (which is one of Ian Fleming's short stories), but this was never confirmed. What was confirmed is that the story would deal with the destruction of a chemical weapons laboratory in Scotland, and the events would take place in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. However, the film was canceled due to legal issues between UA/MGM and EON that ran for around 4 years.[4]
In 1993, the legal battle was over, and Timothy Dalton was expected to return as James Bond (although his contract had been expired, negotiations with him to renew it were being held); the next Bond movie became Goldeneye.[5]. In an interview with the Daily Mail in August of that year, Dalton indicated that Michael France was writing the story of the new movie, and the production was to begin in January or February 1994..[6]. When the deadline was not met, Dalton surprised everyone on the 12th of April 1994 (during the time he was shooting the mini-series Scarlett) that he would not return as James Bond. In taking that decision, he exercised the option that his contract had already expired. Two months later, it was announced that Pierce Brosnan is the new James Bond.
Timothy Dalton's assertion that Michael France was writing the new film proved correct. Working closely with the Broccolis and Wilson, France had created a first draft screenplay named after Ian Fleming's house in Jamaica, GoldenEye. The first draft had been written with Dalton in mind and, when Brosnan came on board, it was rewritten by British writer Jeffrey Caine who retained a lot of France's original ideas (involving Bond's relationship with the traitorous 006, Alec Trevelyan) but added new angles to the piece - it was Caine who added the prologue that opens the finished film. A third writer, Kevin Wade, was brought in to polish the script, followed by final tinkering by Bruce Feirstein, a friend of Barbara Broccoli and her husband Fred Zollo (see GoldenEye for full details). Dalton reflects (in 2007) on the (retrospective) possibility of appearing as James Bond for a third time: "I was supposed to make one more but it was cancelled because MGM and the film's producers got into a law suit which lasted for five years. After that, I didn't want to do it anymore."[7]
Compared to Moore, Dalton's portrayal of Bond was darker, more grittily realistic and truer to the original character as portrayed in Fleming's novels. He also came across as a reluctant agent who did always not enjoy the assignments he was given. In The Living Daylights he tells a critical colleague: "Tell M what you want. If he fires me, I'll thank him for it." In Licence to Kill, he quits the secret service in order to pursue his own agenda.
This was something of a double-edged sword. Critics and fans of Fleming's original novels welcomed a more serious interpretation after more than a decade of Roger Moore's lighthearted approach.[8] However, the reaction of Moore aficionados and those who had grown up with Moore as their Bond during his 12-year tenure (as well as Sean Connery before) was mixed, as most of them were generally unfamiliar with Ian Fleming's original novels, while Desmond Llewelyn, who played gadget master Q, stated that he favoured Dalton's performance for being closer to Fleming's original novels.[citation needed] Dalton's serious interpretation was not only in portraying the character, but also in performing most of the stunts of the action scenes by himself, with the assistance of stunt coordinator Jonas Carp.[9]
The Post Bond Era
After his Bond films, Dalton divided his professional career work between, stage and television and films; where he diversified the characters he played. This helped him to eliminate the 007 typacasting that followed him during the previous period. For example, he played Rhett Butler in Scarlett, the television mini-series sequel to Gone with the Wind. During the second half of the 1990s, he starred in several cable movies; most notably the IRA drama The Informant and the action thriller Made Men. He also played Julius Ceasar in the 1999 TV movie Cleopatra. In 2003, he played a parody of James Bond named Damian Drake in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action. At the end of that year and the beginning of 2004, he returned to theatre to play Lord Asriel in the stage version of His Dark Materials (the same character is played in the 2007 movie version by one of Dalton's successors in the James Bond role; Daniel Craig). In 2007, Dalton appeared in the acclaimed action/comedy movie Hot Fuzz, his most prominent appearance in mainstream cinema for several years.
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