10 actors who almost became James Bond
After first being adapted into a feature-length movie with 1962’s Dr. No, which launched the career of Sean Connery and made the character an icon, James Bond has been a fixture of popular culture. With 25 films in the series and six actors playing 007 to date, the franchise has provided many notable moments.
Despite the fair criticisms that can be thrown at some of the films, though, how the franchise has tried to keep up with the changing times has ensured that it is the fifth-highest-grossing movie series in history. The immense success of the most recent title, 2021’s No Time to Die, resoundingly displayed there is still a significant appetite for 007, even though he originated in a time so far removed from our own.
Another key part of the James Bond series is that there have been many notable actors who nearly became the title character, with the producers always looking for someone who fits in with Ian Fleming’s original idea for the character but with an increasingly modern edge. Famously, playing James Bond can be the key to cementing an actor’s cultural standing, with each of those lucky enough to bring him to life writing their name into the history books, often for very different reasons.
The hunt for the right James Bond has seen many familiar persons come close to securing the deal before a variety of different factors stopped them from doing so. Find ten actors who almost became 007 below.
10 actors who almost became James Bond:
Adam West
It made sense that the legendary Adam West, who played ‘The Caped Crusader’ Batman in the hit 1960s series of the same name and its ensuing 1966 movie, should be attached to Bond. There are parallels in the investigative nature of the characters.
Whilst it didn’t come from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, it was West’s Batman co-star Burt Ward, who played his sidekick Robin, that claimed his friend turned 007 for the same reason as Eastwood; that he thought a British actor should play the character.
He told The Express: “Yes, he actually turned the role down, and the reason why? He thought from a technical standpoint that it should be a Brit that plays the role. I think he would have been great, he would have been fabulous. He would have been closer, in my opinion, to Sean Connery, even than Roger Moore. Sean has even more of that satirical twinkle in the eye.”
Cary Grant
Cary Grant is an icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age, so it makes a lot of sense that he should have been attached to James Bond back in the early days. Known for working with the eminent auteur Alfred Hitchcock on 1955’s To Catch a Thief and 1959’s North By Northwest, wherein he played suave leading men, this led to Dr. No director Terrence Young approaching him about starring as 007.
Grant initially accepted the job but only wanted to make one movie as he was already 58, meaning he had less impetus to sign a multi-film deal as a younger actor. However, this also proved to be a roadblock, leading the producers to hire someone who could do multiple titles. This saw them cast Sean Connery, who went on to do seven instalments, with some of the more traditional elements of the James Bond fanbase deeming the Scotsman the purest version of the super spy.
Christian Bale
A time when Christian Bale was making waves in Hollywood at the turn of the millennium, he came very close to signing on as James Bond, according to producer Barbara Broccoli. This was in the era when Pierce Brosnan’s tenure was drawing to a close following his penultimate title, The World Is Not Enough, from 1999.
In a demonstration of the changing times and the fact that Bond needed an extensive rebrand when it came to the next Daniel Craig-fronted chapter, Bale showed nothing but disdain for the character due to what he represents.
According to Barbara Broccoli, the job was “Christian’s for the asking”, but he was apathetic towards the opportunity, which others surely would have snatched at. She said Bale asserted that 007 represented “every despicable stereotype about England and British actors.”
Adding: “I already played a serial killer,” in Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood is an icon of cinema, with him arguably the best-loved star of westerns. Although ‘The Man with No Name’ from Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy might seem far removed from 007 in nature – not to mention that he is American – it still directed producers to his door in the late 1960s after Connery’s exit due to feuds with them over remuneration for his efforts.
In a great display of self-awareness from Eastwood, who at that point was still cementing his status, he turned down the opportunity because he believed James Bond should be British, perhaps sensing a backlash from fans. However, he has no regrets about such a bold movie. He would recall to the Los Angeles Times years later: “My lawyer represented the Broccolis [who produce the Bond franchise], and he came and said: ‘They would love to have you.’ But to me, well, that was somebody else’s gig. That’s Sean’s deal. It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it.”
Hugh Jackman
2002’s Die Another Day saw Pierce Brosnan bow out from the role of James Bond, and the producers commenced the hunt for his replacement once more. One of the newcomers they seriously considered was Hugh Jackman, the Australian hunk who had caught the public eye with his visceral performance as Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s 2000 effort X-Men, the first of the film series.
Per Jackman, he was approached for initial discussions about signing on when Die Another Day was still filming in 2002, with it not officially announced that Brosnan was departing until 2004. However, he couldn’t take the job because of his time commitment as Wolverine and the fact he wouldn’t have had a say in the overblown direction the franchise had gone in.
“I was about to do X-Men 2 and a call came from my agent asking if I’d be interested in Bond,” he recalled. “I just felt at the time that the scripts had become so unbelievable and crazy, and I felt like they needed to become grittier and real. And the response was: ‘Oh, you don’t get a say. You just have to sign on.’ I was also worried that between Bond and X-Men, I’d never have time to do different things.”
Liam Neeson
No stranger to action flicks, Liam Neeson, the Northern Irish staple of the industry, once revealed he nearly played James Bond in the 1990s. When appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, the Taken star denied the rumours that he had rejected playing 007 in 1995’s GoldenEye, which eventually became Pierce Brosnan’s first flick.
However, he did state that he received “feelers” from casting directors. Yet, he wasn’t officially offered the role, and even if he was, he said he would have turned it down because it was either that or marrying his late wife Natasha Richardson. “I remember my dear, departed wife [who died in 2009], said to me — we were shooting a film in North Carolina called Nell — and she looked at me straight in the face, and she said, ‘Liam, if you’re offered this and if you do it, you know we can’t get married,'” he explained.
Michael Caine
It’s often overlooked, but Michael Caine has played one of the greatest British spies the silver screen has ever seen, Harry Palmer. 1965’s The Ipcress File remains one of the best espionage films Britain has produced and serves as an enlightening peek into Cold War paranoia.
Reportedly, Caine was considered for the role of 007 after his friend Connery’s tenure ended, and he had shown his chops both as an on-screen spy and womaniser. Caine would later claim that he was too “ordinary” to play James Bond, though, saying: “I was always much more ordinary. Bond was a glamorous, imaginative creation. I’ve always played real people.”
He also inferred that his friendship with Connery might have influenced his decision, stating that “you didn’t raise the subject of Bond” around him following his acrimonious departure.
Mel Gibson
As the star of violent flicks such as the Mad Max series and Braveheart, there’s no doubt that controversial actor Mel Gibson would have brought ample grit to the role of James Bond. This opportunity to play Bond came when Gibson was still a relative newcomer when Roger Moore’s contract was up following 1981’s For Your Eyes Only. As Moore considered retiring from the role, which commenced with 1973’s Live and Let Die, producer Albert R. Broccoli began a tentative search for his replacement, which led him to the Mad Max star.
However, Gibson claims he turned the role down after seeing Sean Connery being “stuck” in the job for so long. He told JoBlo: “I got offered the James Bond movies when I was like 26, which is like 40 years ago, okay? And they said, hey, we want you to be the next James Bond. And I thought about it; I was in Australia, I was working with Peter Weir [on Gallipoli]. And I did think about it, and I sort of turned it down – for that reason.”
He added: “I thought, look what happened to poor Sean, he got stuck there for like three decades.”
Ralph Fiennes
Most people know Ralph Fiennes for his work as the villainous Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise, as well as his demonic portrayal of the Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg’s drama Schindler’s List. He’s also a vital part of the most recent palette of James Bond, replacing Judi Dench as MI6 head honcho M in 2012.
According to him, there was a chance he could have played Bond following Timothy Dalton’s second and final outing, 1989’s Licence to Kill. He told Seven magazine: “There was an early conversation. There was a conversation that was great, and a meeting with Cubby Broccoli that was terrific. I think that’s all I can really say, except that it didn’t lead to anything on both sides.”
He continued: “I don’t think I felt ready to commit, and I think they were looking at Pierce. I think I would have been a terrible Bond anyway.”
Sam Neill
Sam Neill might be a household name thanks to his work as Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park franchise, but back in the late 1980s, when he was fresh from his roles as the older Damien Thorn in Omen III: The Final Conflict and Evil Angels, he was also very close to playing James Bond in 1987’s The Living Daylights, the first of the duo that Timothy Dalton starred in.
However, when speaking to Den of Geek in 2022, Neill was just about as interested in playing 007 as Christian Bale. “First of all, I wouldn’t have taken the role if they’d asked me to do it”, he recalled. “It was the last time that I was bullied into doing a screen test. My agent insisted that I go and do it, [saying] it would be rude otherwise. So reluctantly I went out to Pinewood [Studios] and did this silly thing for a part I never wanted to do”.
