EXCLUSIVE
Pierce Brosnan

Though he excelled in English and art, by 16 Pierce had had enough. Now wearing the long hair and goatee beard the times demanded (and wondering whether he was gay), in 1969 he began training to be a commercial artist in a photographic studio where clients included both Harrods and Selfridges. He spent his time "watering spider plants and learning how to draw 3-piece suites for the Evening Standard".

But one night a week was different. Encouraged by a co-worker, he'd attend Kennington's Oval House Theatre Club, an experimental arts troupe, performing in several of their productions. The experience finally opened his eyes - he would be an actor. Jacking in his job, he began to pursue the craft. To support himself he took various odd jobs. He was a cab driver, for a while he was a fire-eater in the circus. He cleaned people's houses for Domestics Unlimited, a firm that also employed one Jeremy Irons. "I starved," he said later "I washed dishes - anything".

In 1973, his education became more formal when he enrolled at the Drama Centre of London. This gave him an essential background in theatre. He also, briefly, moved in with Irish actress Rebecca McKenzie. Graduating in 1976, he became acting assistant stage manager at York's Theatre Royal, and made his professional stage debut in Wait Until Dark.
Now came his first big break. Spotted by legendary playwright Tennessee Williams, he was cast in the role of McCabe in the British premiere of the great man's Red Devil Battery Sign at the Roundhouse, causing something of a stir in London. He still has a telegram from Williams on his wall, saying simply "Thank God for you, my dear boy".

In 1977, he moved on to Noel Coward's Semi-Monde with the Glasgow Citizens Company, occasionally returning to the company during the next two years for The Maid's Tragedy, Painter's Palace Of Pleasure and No Orchids For Mrs Blandish.

More importantly, his performances in Red Devil Battery Sign had been witnessed by director Franco Zeffirelli, who cast him opposite Mrs Olivier, Joan Plowright, in his production of Filumena at London's Lyric Theatre. It would play for a year and a half, and get him cast as a race-horse trainer in the BBC's Murphy's Stroke, the tale of an outrageous Irish betting scam.

A year later, in 1980, he made his cinematic debut. It was very, very brief, but utterly memorable. In Brit gangster thriller, The Long Good Friday, with Bob Hoskins' criminal empire fallen to pieces, Bob steps into a car he believes is driven by his own man. It screeches away, pinning him to the back seat and, before he can ask what's up, a man in the passenger seat turns around. It's Pierce and, words unnecessary, his gun and his wolfish smile tell us and Bob that the IRA are taking their deadly revenge.

1980 would also bring a bit-part in the all-star Agatha Christie flick The Mirror Crack'd, but Brosnan was destined for greater things - right now. Murphy's Stroke had been seen by the American producers of TV miniseries The Manions Of America. Written by Agnes Nixon, creator of All My Children, and Anne Sisson, creator of Upstairs Downstairs, this epic soap opera followed the fortunes of two families, one Irish, one English, in 19th Century Philadelphia. Pierce, they thought, would be perfect as Rory O'Manion, rising from poverty in Ireland to corporate success in the US, while fighting in the Civil War and romancing Kate Mulgrew.

The filming of The Manions took Pierce back to Ireland, where there was great publicity around the shoot. Noticing Pierce in all the furore, a cousin contacted him, asking if his own uncle Tom was perhaps Pierce's father. Pierce had never even heard his father's name spoken, but he knew this was he. Thoroughly perturbed, he could not bring himself to make contact just yet. This would happen a year later. Both parties were extremely emotional, but they would never become close.

Cassandra would film her parts in Corfu in 1980, taking Pierce (still just her boyfriend) along with her. Here he'd meet Bond producer Cubby Broccoli who, mindful that Roger Moore would not stay in the role for much longer, immediately noticed Brosnan's Bond-like appearance. "If he can act," said Broccoli "he's my guy". He could act, but he wouldn't be his guy for another 15 years.

It was while on the same trip to Corfu that Brosnan received the Manions script. The filming of this would convince him that he should go for it in America. Though a stage actor, he'd always been fascinated by film. A few weeks after seeing Goldfinger, he'd been blown away by Lawrence Of Arabia, then the work of Brando and Steve McQueen. Then it was Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, as well as Eastwood and Warren Beatty. Hollywood, he thought, was surely the place to be.

With The Manions just being aired in the States, now was the time. Trouble was, the Brosnans had just bought a house in Wimbledon, and there was a family to think of. Cassandra had two children from a previous relationship - Christopher and Charlotte (Pierce would adopt them in 1986 when their father died) - and also had son Sean with Pierce. So Pierce took a risk. He re-mortgaged the house, telling the bank that he had definite employment in America - "a total, shameless lie". Taking £2000, he took off with Cassandra for two weeks of auditions in Los Angeles.

The very first audition was for a new NBC TV series, to be called Remington Steele. Here private investigator Laura Holt (to be played by Stephanie Zimbalist) would reluctantly take on a new partner, the mysterious, suave and often inept man of the title. Together, they would fight crime and, as with Moonlighting and The X-Files, get everyone wondering whether they were going to, you know...

Pierce got the part, but had to wait six months for the green light. He returned to London to appear in another miniseries, Nancy Astor, about the outspoken feminist icon who married into massive wealth and became the first woman to sit in Parliament. Pierce played her first husband, Robert Gould Shaw who, though cousin and namesake of the Civil War hero, was a womanising and hard-drinking gambler. Alongside Lisa Harrow's Astor, he was tremendous as this classy, charming bad boy. When the show finally appeared in the US, in 1984, it would see him nominated for a Golden Globe.

Pierce got the part, but had to wait six months for the green light. He returned to London to appear in another miniseries, Nancy Astor, about the outspoken feminist icon who married into massive wealth and became the first woman to sit in Parliament. Pierce played her first husband, Robert Gould Shaw who, though cousin and namesake of the Civil War hero, was a womanising and hard-drinking gambler. Alongside Lisa Harrow's Astor, he was tremendous as this classy, charming bad boy. When the show finally appeared in the US, in 1984, it would see him nominated for a Golden Globe.

1987 saw the end of Remington Steele, and Pierce return to film in Frederick Forsyth's The Fourth Protocol. Here he was at his brooding best as Valeri Petrofsky, a KGB major who's sent to England to let off an atomic device near a US military base. Everyone, he hopes, will think the Americans caused the disaster and will shut their bases across Europe. Michael Caine played the spycatcher who discovers that nuclear weapons are being couriered into the country piece by piece.

'87 brought terrible news, too, when Cassandra was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She would struggle against it for four years, but would die in Pierce's arms on December 28th, 1991, one day after their 11th wedding anniversary. Pierce was distraught, saying "Cassie has made me the man I am, the actor I am, the father I am. She's forever embedded in every fibre of my being".

But this would come later. In 1988, Pierce starred in another miniseries, James Clavell's Noble House. In this, he was Ian Dunross, tai-pan of the oldest and finest of the Chinese trade houses in Hong Kong, fighting against corporate rivals trying to bring Noble House down. Then came another step into un-Bond-like territory with Taffin, where he played a tough Irish debt-collector who's asked to protect townsfolk from a chemical company that's bullying them into accepting a plant nearby. Next, it was India in 1825 wherehe was William Savage, a British officer who goes undercover to infiltrate the infamous Thug cult.

After this, he fulfilled his NBC contract with Around The World In 80 Days, playing Phileas Fogg to Eric Idle's Passepartout. Sticking closely to the book, the miniseries received great critical acclaim. Then came The Heist, where he was a race-track security boss, framed by his partner Tom Skerritt and jailed. Out again, he plans a scam of his own.

1990 brought more British colonialism, this time in 1923 Nigeria, with Bruce Beresford's Mister Johnson. This centred around an educated black man who's accepted neither by the Brits nor his own people. Endlessly dignified,he winds up taking the rap for the accounting misdemeanours of his ambitious boss, district administrator Brosnan.Now it was thrillers all the way. Murder 101 saw him as Charles Lattimer, an author who finds fame by covering a notorious murder trial, then finds himself framed for murder by the murderer. The Hitchcock-style Victim Of Love saw him reciting Edgar Allan Poe and dating both psychologist Jo-Beth Williams and her patient Virginia Madsen. At least, that's what Madsen says. She also tells Williams that he murdered his wife to be with her.

1992 saw the budget rise when he played Dr Lawrence Angelo in The Lawnmower Man. This was intended as a virtual reality spectacular, an update of Tron, with Pierce's scientist testing his intelligence-enhancing drugs on slow gardener Jeff Fahey. Being as they turned a monkey into a raving psycho, one could only fear the worst.

The movie resurrected the franchise. Not only was it bigger and flashier, it also featured the franchise's first real sex scene, when Famke Janssen crushed an old man between her thighs. And Pierce, as everyone expected, made a great Bond. The film took $350 million at the box-office, far and away the biggest return yet.

Brosnan was made, but refused to let Bond keep him out of movies in the way Remington Steele had. He moved on to play the handsome actor husband of Barbra Streisand's sister in Streisand's own The Mirror Has Two Faces. Then came Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, where he revealed a real comedic touch as a professor flirting with ditzy TV host Sarah Jessica Parker, an affair that continues even when Martians cut off their heads and attach them to the bodies of small dogs. Next came disaster flick Dante's Peak where he played a scientist who, believing a volcano is about to blow, must convince Linda Hamilton, mayoress of a nearby town. The filming here was tough, as Pierce suffers badly from claustrophobia.

Now it was back to Bond with Tomorrow Never Dies. Here he took on insane media mogul Jonathan Pryce, intent upon starting a war between Britain and China, and had a set-to with Chinese agent Wai Lin, played by the excellent Michelle Yeoh. This was another tough shoot, Pierce at one point being accidentally whacked by a stunt-man. He still bears a scar above his upper lip.

Again he moved on into other areas. Having started up a production company, Irish Dreamtime, with old mate Beau St Clair, he now produced and starred in The Nephew. Here an American kid returns to his Irish hometown, starts seeing Pierce's daughter and re-ignites a conflict between Pierce and his uncle. The movie also featured Charlotte Brosnan (who that year, 1998, also made Pierce a grandfather), and Niall Toibin, who'd starred alongside Pierce in his TV debut, Murphy's Stroke, nearly 20 years before. Pierce would quickly act as executive producer on The Match, a comedy about two pub teams in a grudge game.

Grey Owl was not a success, but Brosnan was back instantly, as Bond once more in The World Is Not Enough. Here he tries to protect Sophie Marceau after her tycoon father is killed at MI6 HQ. The murderer, Renard (Robert Carlyle), who feels no pain due to a bullet lodged in his brain, then comes after them both.

It was an interesting addition to the series, with Brosnan showing a darker side to Bond. And it was another huge hit. It opened on the same day as Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, both films making over $30 million that weekend - the first time two movies had managed that in history.

2000 saw Pierce's personal life in uproar, delaying his marriage till the next year. He travelled across northern India with the Dalai Lama - money from coverage of his wedding would be used to open a vocational school for exiled Tibetans in Kathmandu - and then there was his son, Sean. Pierce's own upbringing made his family very important to him, so he was shocked and horrified on hearing that Sean, in a truck being driven by his cousin, had plunged off a mountain road, damaging his spine. It was thought that he'd never walk again. Thankfully, this would not be the case.

Pierce moved on again, this time to The Tailor Of Panama, written by John Le Carre and directed by John Boorman. Here he played Andrew Osnard, a British spy and all-round rotter who, after an affair with an ambassador's wife, is sent to Panama. Here he meets Geoffrey Rush, a tailor who fits all the country's top brass and mobsters. Brosnan knows of Rush's dark past and threatens to tell all if Rush won't spill the beans on his clients. But Rush doesn't know anything and makes stories up, leading, of course, to trouble.

The next year, 2002, saw more Bond with Die Another Day, the 20th official Bond flick. This saw Bond's character expanded even further, when he's shattered under torture while crossing the globe to unmask a traitor and prevent a catastrophic war. Pierce would suffer another scare during the shoot. Son Sean, studying at Millfield school in Somerset, collapsed in the gym with peritonitis, a problem linked to the earlier accident. Pierce rushed to his side once more and again he was OK.

After Die Another Day came Evelyn, directed by Bruce "Mister Johnson" Beresford. Here, in a direct contrast with his own life, Pierce played Desmond Doyle, a father who goes all the way to the High Court to retrieve his children from care once their mother has gone. Pierce has always been mindful of children, being an ambassador for the Prince's Trust and a patron of Irish UNICEF.

Of course, Pierce Brosnan will not play Bond forever (Clive Owen waits patiently in the wings), though one should never say never again. When he does quit, he will generally be considered to have been, after Sean Connery, the second-best Bond. Some disagree, saying that even though Connery had the advantage of being the first Bond, Brosnan surpassed him. Those in the know, though, will look beyond the Bond argument, recall The Fourth Protocol, Mars Attacks! and The Tailor Of Panama and remember Pierce Brosnan as a very fine actor, indeed.

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