The Timothy Dalton Era

Dalton was approached for the part first, but he was committed to several London theatre productions and to star in film production "Brenda Starr" with Brooke Shields. Broccoli next settled on the then 33-year-old Pierce Brosnan, an Irish actor who he had first met on the set of "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) when he joined his wife Cassandra Harris (playing Countess Lisl) and Broccoli for lunch. As luck would have it, NBC had just cancelled Remington Steele as its audience figures began to decline and Brosnan looked set to step into Moore's shoes. But as word broke of EON's interest in the young Irishman, NBC suddenly decided to renew Remington Steele. Brosnan was still under contract and had no choice but to press on with a final series of the show. Brosnan was devastated - he was losing the chance to play the biggest role of his career.

Broccoli was forced to look harder for his new Bond. Sam Neill was briefly considered as was the unknown Australian actor Finlay Light, but at the 11th hour Dalton was approached again. Broccoli told Dalton that he was prepared to wait the six weeks until he became available. At first Dalton did not want to be tested for the part of Bond, he thought that his track record as an actor was sufficient, in the end Michael Wilson explained to him that: "Look, nobody doubts your talents. But we have to see you as Bond, just to get an idea of what we're dealing with, what we have on camera."

Brushes With Bond
Dalton had had a distinguished stage, television and screen career stretching back two decades. In 1968, he had auditioned for the role when Connery left, hoping to make his debut appearance as 007 in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969).

In a 1987 interview on "Good Morning America", Dalton said he turned down the role in 1971 because he was "too young" for it, and because of the imposing legacy of Sean Connery. Dalton had been approached by Broccoli again in 1982, when it looked like Moore was going to resist playing Bond again in "Octopussy" (1983).

Dalton later said of his Bond screentests, "There was a time when Sean Connery gave up the role. I guess I, alongside quite a few other actors, was approached about the possibility of playing the part. That was for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I was very flattered, but I think anybody would have been off their head to have taken over from Connery. I was also too young, Bond should be a man in his mid-thirties, at least - a mature adult who has been around."

The Living Daylights
In keeping with the changing pace of public morals, the new Bond was going to be less of a womaniser than he had been in the past. That didn't, however, mean that there wouldn't be the obligatory Bond girls, just that Bond would largely keep his hands to himself this time round.

With his tough approach to the James Bond character, Dalton radically reversed the on-screen image of Bond and returned the character to the 007 Ian Fleming wrote about.

Clearly, this came as a shock to Roger Moore fans who were quite at ease with Moore's laid-back approach to the character. Dalton publicly announced a desire to get back to "Fleming's Bond" and was quite successful at it.

Dalton's debut Bond outing "The Living Daylights" had its premiere on 29 June 1987 at the usual venue, the Odeon Leicester Square in London. MGM/UA had ambitious plans for the film, striking an unprecedented 250 prints for its nationwide release on 10 July.

The British and world premiere on Tuesday 13 June 1989 was a predictable enough affair - it was held at the Odeon Leicester Square. Though the premiere was also attended by former Bond girls Jane Seymour and Britt Ekland, there was a noticeable lack of interest in the media and the crowds that gathered outside the Odeon were noticeably smaller than was usual for such events.

The film opened in the States on 14 July and found itself going head to head with a summer full of blockbuster action movies, including "Lethal Weapon 2", "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and "Batman". Despite EON's best efforts to endear the film to the American market by setting it on their doorstep and filling the supporting cast with American actors, "Licence To Kill" came of worst in the summer box office battle. With admissions dropping to 11.7 million, the all-important Stateside gross of $34,667,015 didn't even manage to cover the negative costs of $35 million.

The worldwide gross for the film was also worryingly low [just $156,200,000] and MGM/UA were starting to get nervous. Broccoli too was beginning to wonder if the fizz was going out of his 27-year old franchise.

Dalton was candid in a 1989 magazine interview on the state of affairs: "My feeling is this will be the last one. I don`t mean my last one. I mean the end of the whole lot. I don`t speak with any real authority, but it`s sort of a feeling I have. Sorry!". Ultimately, Dalton would be proved partially correct, as he never returned to the role.

Licence Revoked
With Dalton's contract officially expired in 1993 (which was originally planned to be the year of his fourth film), the actor bowed out from the role gracefully in 1994. Dalton had read France's screenplay for Bond 17 whilst filming "Scarlett".

It was there that Dalton made, and subsequently announced, his decision to walk way. On 12 April 1994, the bombshell was dropped - Timothy Dalton was refusing to come back to the fold. He'd signed up for three films, but it was now five years since his last outing as Bond and he felt the time had come to move on. This saved Broccoli, who was reportedly under pressure from MGM, from having to "fire" the actor.

EON opted not to stand in his way and set about searching for his replacement.