Timothy Dalton

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Timothy Dalton
File:Timothy.PNG
Born
Timothy Peter Dalton
Height6 ft 2 in (1.88m)
Websitehttp://www.timothydalton.com/

Timothy Peter Dalton (born March 21, 1946) is a [Wales|Welsh-born]] British actor of stage and screen, well known for being chosen as the fourth official James Bond.

Biography

Youth and early career

Born in Colwyn Bay, 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, when he was reaching four years old, the family moved back to England to Belper, Derbyshire. 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. He 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 (1987-1989)

File:TimDalton 007.jpg
Timothy Dalton as James Bond.

In 1986, after Roger Moore's retirement from the role of James Bond, the lean, 6'2" green-eyed Dalton was approached to replace him, 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 offered the role of James Bond twice. 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.[1]. Dalton was also asked to star in Octopussy (1983) in 1982, but again turned down the role.

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. 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'.

Timothy Dalton was the official James Bond until he left the role in April of 1994. 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. However, the film was cancelled due to legal issues between UA and MGM that ran for 6 years. Timothy Dalton was scheduled to star in Goldeneye, with a script already written for him as James Bond. [1](The original Goldeneye plot starring Timothy Dalton as 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.

James Bond's parentage in Fleming's novels is that of the union of a Swiss mother and a Scottish father, both parents dying in a climbing accident in the Alps. In this way, Timothy Dalton's physical attributes closely match the result of such a parentage, and he has been described as being the closest genetic composite of James Bond.

Dalton's portrayal of Bond - darker, more grittily realistic and truer to the original character as portrayed in Fleming's novels - 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 [2]. 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. Connery later stated that he preferred Pierce Brosnan's portrayal of Bond over that of Dalton, feeling that Dalton had taken the character 'too seriously in the wrong way and was not cool', 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. [3]

After his Bond films, Dalton's career entered an uncertain period. Successes on stage and television were balanced by indifferent films. He also played Rhett Butler in Scarlett, the television mini-series sequel to Gone with the Wind. In 2003, he played a parody of James Bond named Damian Drake in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Selected filmography

File:Tdalton Inf.jpg
Timothy Dalton as DCI Rennie in The Informant.

Selected stage career

References

  1. ^ Lee Pfeiffer and Philip Lisa (1992). The Incredible World of 007: An Authorised Celebration of James Bond. Boxtree. ISBN 1-85283-141-3.
  2. ^ "The Bond of Colwyn Bay by Peredur Glyn". How is Timothy Dalton considered the best actor who portrayed Bond as it appeared in Ian Fleming's novels?.
  3. ^ "Several Interviews with Timothy Dalton on his 007 portrayal".

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Timothy Dalton.
Preceded by
Roger Moore
1973–1985 		James Bond actor
1987—1989 		Succeeded by
Pierce Brosnan
1995 –2002
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