Timothy Dalton – James Bond 4

Timothy Dalton is a British actor who was born on 21 March 1944. His acting career started in 1964 till date. After Roger Moore retired in 1985, a new search began for a replacement. Likely actors for the role of James Bond were Sam Neil, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton. At the end, Timothy was chosen and became Roger Moore's next successor. More of a Shakespearean kind of actor, he was keen to portray the character as accurately as possible and spent a great amount of time reading 'Bond' novels before this role.

His first James Bond act was in the movie The Living Daylights in 1987. Among all the Bonds he is still regarded as the true portrait of Bond based on the novels. He intentionally played the role as reflected in the books where he is known to be serious, showing little humour, ruthless, strict and more focused as a killer. It was from his movie I got to see Bond differently; as a British Assassin and not as a mere agent.

Though he was only able to act two Bond movies, the second being License to Kill (1989), he is regarded as the best bond actor based on his way of successfully interpreting the role the way it should be in the novels; and his act proved to be the basis for the 21st century Bond in which the likes of Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig followed suit. Unfortunately for him he was not able to act his third movie which would have been GoldenEye due to litigation issues over the licensing of the Bond catalogue. His six-year contract was up in 1993 and he left in 1994 having declined to continue even though he was approached to renew his contract. 

Although his acting reflected how Bond should be based on the novels, it did not really go so well with many sects. They felt he was cold, boring, dull, lacking action and completely deviating from his predecessors. However, his movies were quite successful especially his first. It earned much more than either of the two Bond films Roger Moore acted and it even rivalled contemporary box-office releases such as Bruce Willis’ Die Hard and Mel Gibson/Danny Glover Lethal Weapon. His second movie was not as successful as his first though which can be blamed on bad marketing campaign. It was released at the same time as Indiana Jones and the last crusade, Batman and Lethal Weapon 2 – all very successful movies. It just did not stand much of a chance then. Notwithstanding, The Living Daylights became the fourth most successful Bond film at the time of its release having a worldwide gross of $191 million.

In terms of looks, he is among the charming Bonds.

Prior to his Bond career, he played a couple of TV dramas including Jane Eyre where he played as Mr Rochester. This programme aired on NTA Channel 5, Lagos in the 80's. Remember the programme? 

In terms of his personal life, Dalton was married to actress Vanessa Redgrave (1971-1986). He later married musician Oksana Grigorieva and has a son, Alexander who happens to be a ManCity supporter.