Timothy Dalton
"I'm Sure You Understand"
Timothy Dalton is one who took part mostly in Shakesperean roles throughout his career as an actor. He began his acting career in the late 60s when he also mixed in a healthy dose of BBC work during this time, including The Three Princes ('68), Five Finger Exercise ('70), and Candida ('71). Also during this time he was approached and tested for James Bond in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but he turned it down feeling he was too young for the part.
Dalton would soon again be in position to accept the role of James Bond in 1986 after Pierce Brosnan was unable to do it. Dalton's first Bond film adventure, The Living Daylights, was released on July 31, 1987.
Dalton's first 007 film did fairly well worldwide at the boxoffice and was fairly well recieved by the fans. The ongoing hype for the film dubbed him as the "best Bond ever." Given the success of The Living Daylights, the producers signed Dalton to a three-picture deal to play 007. The second of those three films was on the way.
Licence to Kill was released in 1989 but was recieved with very little fanfare. Some reports
say that The Living Daylights had been written especially for Roger Moore. Later reports
surfaced that Licence to Kill , a very dark and brooding Bond, was written
especially for Dalton. Licence to Kill suffered from a horrible lack of
marketing which seemed to kill it right out of the starting gate. Most Bond fans criticized the film as being overtly violent and completely detached from the James Bond mould that Connery and Moore had made famous. The most frequent comparison you will hear regarding this film is that it's "a high-priced episode of Miami Vice."
After the failure of Licence to Kill, the producers at MGM/United Artists sent James Bond on the longest hiatus the series has ever seen: a six-year vacation. This long gap between films is credited partially to the outright flop of Dalton's latest film and partially to legal battles United Artists was facing at the time.
After legal battles had caesed in 1994, production began on the 17th James Bond thriller, which would be Dalton's third film as 007. However, in April 1994, Dalton officially resigned his role as James Bond in part because he felt that audiences had had enough of him and it was time to move on to face new challenges. The producers were reportedly disheartened to see Dalton go and had stated, "We have never thought of anyone but Timothy as the star of the 17th James Bond film."
The role eventually went to Pierce Brosnan and his film GoldenEye went on to become a huge blockbuster success in the fall of 1995.
Dalton has appeared in many works over the past several years after his Bond days. Most notably, his role as Rhett Butler in the made-for-TV sequel to Gone With the Wind called, Scarlett.
