Timothy Dalton: The Welshman gave the cult figure James Bond depth again

Timothy Dalton
The Welshman gave the cult figure James Bond depth again

Timothy Dalton, 75, was only licensed to kill briefly before he passed it on to Pierce Brosnan, 67, "GoldenEye". That is why only die-hard James Bond fans remember in detail the appearances of the actor who played the secret agent in "The Touch of Death" (1987) and "License to Kill" (1989). The serious 007 depiction of the Briton, who will celebrate his 75th birthday on March 21, was based heavily on the novel by Ian Fleming (1908-1964).

In 1987 he led 007 back to its roots – despite tough opposition

Dalton, who was offered the role of the legendary MI6 agent for the first time in the late 1960s, did not finally accept it until 1986 after he left Roger Moore (1927-2017, "The 2"). At the time, "although the series was very entertaining, it was more of a parody," he reminded himself in a 2014 interview with the entertainment website "The A.V. Club". "Let's put it that way, she had become too joking." Producer Albert Broccoli (1909-1996) sensed this and tried "to return them to their original roots in the Sean Connery films".

Bringing James Bond back to seriousness, however, was no easy task, as Dalton discovered. "The studio doesn't want to change it, the people who work on it don't want to change it … everyone is happy with what they know," he recapitulated. Nevertheless, his portrayal of the tough, at times struggling and slightly tragic-looking James Bond stands in clear contrast to the light-footed macho playboy, who his deceased predecessor Roger Moore embodied in a total of seven films between 1973 and 1985.

Similarity to Daniel Craig

Dalton's 007 is more similar to that of the current Bond actor Daniel Craig (53, "Specter"), who also portrays a conflicted hero who is haunted by his own shadow. In the 80s, however, the world was apparently not ready for such a change, as Dalton recognized in 2010. "When we did 'The Living Daylight' and 'License to Kill', everyone was used to something different," he explained in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly". "I think Cubby (Albert Broccoli, editor's note) and I were pretty lonely voices."

Dalton's portrayal of the super spy, which was unusual for the time, did not turn his two Bond films into box-office flops. But on the contrary. "The Touch of Death" was more successful in 1987 than the two Roger Moore predecessors "Octopussy" (1983) and "In the face of death" (1985) and even hit the 80s action hits "Die Hard" (1988) and "Lethal Weapon" (1987). And "License to Kill" was a similarly big success two years later. Only at the US box office did the results turn out to be leaner due to too strong blockbuster competition in the summer of the year.

Timothy Dalton was never the classic blockbuster hero

The commercial success of his two Bond adventures was no reason for the Welshman to be in front of the camera more than 007 – especially since the start of the shooting of the next film, which later became "GoldenEye", was due to legal disputes always delayed. After his contract, which originally signed him for three films, expired in the early 1990s, Dalton decided in 1994 to say goodbye to Bond.

Anyone who knew his résumé should not have been surprised by this step, because Dalton was never your typical blockbuster star. The Briton found his roots in the theater in the 1960s, where he often played in plays by the playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616). And as a film actor, Dalton also showed a tendency towards sophisticated literary adaptations. In 1970, for example, he starred in a film adaptation of the novel "Sturmhöhe" by the writer Emily Brontë (1818-1848). 1983 followed the film version of "Jane Eyre", a work by her sister Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855).

He used Bond – and distanced himself from him

However, Dalton knew how to use the role of James Bond as a tool to implement projects that were close to his heart. One example is the tragic comedy "Hawks" from 1988, which is based on a short story by Bee Gees musician Barry Gibb (74) and recalls "The best comes to the end" (2007). Two seriously ill cancer patients leave the hospital to end their lives with an adventure together. Without Timothy Dalton's first Bond film a year earlier, the film would likely have received little attention – or it might not have been made in the first place.

Since the end of Bond, the Briton has been fighting against being committed to the figure of the super agent. His roles are varied and not only take him to the cinema, but also to television and back to the theater. In 1994 he was seen as Rhett Butler in the six-hour TV sequel to "Gone with the Wind" called "Scarlett". A good ten years later he was Lord Asriel in the production of "His Dark Materials" on the London stage. Timothy Dalton did not have great commercial success after James Bond. However, it never seems to have played a particularly important role for him.

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