he Welsh actor Timothy Dalton met the challenge of succeeding Sean Connery and Roger Moore at the forefront of the most representative saga of British cinema and he far surpassed it: in just two films such as James Bond, ‘The Living Daylights’ and’ License to Kill ‘, managed to give life to the version of the secret agent more faithful to that of the character in the novels. On March 21, he turns 75.
“It is very important to make the man believable so that you can stretch the fantasy. If people like this type of Bond is another question ”, the actor would affirm about his interpretation of the mythical character.
Timothy Dalton picked up the baton from Roger Moore, who had starred in seven films as Agent 007 over 12 years, although he could have been James Bond much earlier: after half a dozen films starring Sean Connery in the first version of the character , he was offered the role in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’.
It was the year 1968 and then the actor considered that he was too young to play James Bond, something that George Lazenby would finally do in that film, the shortest of all the actors who have starred in the saga since he only participated in that film.
Dalton would finally accept the challenge in the second half of the 1980s, with two films that gave a new character to the secret agent and his adventures, ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987) and ‘License to Kill’ (1989), and only the Legal battle between the studios prevented him from fulfilling his contract for three films, which ended in 1993 without the third being shot.
“I was supposed to make one more movie, but it was canceled because MGM and the movie producers got into a legal battle. After that I was no longer motivated to shoot another film, ”the actor announced in 1994, releasing a position that Piercer Brosnan would soon fill in ‘GoldenEye’.
“When I saw those Pierce posters there, I suddenly thought: Jesus, I don’t have to be there with a gun to the side of my head anymore! Suddenly I felt the most tremendous sense of release and began to feel more like myself than I had in years. Suddenly I felt free! ”Said Timothy Dalton after passing through the James Bond film saga.
AN ACTOR FORGED IN THE SCHOOL OF SHAKESPEARE.
Although he is known worldwide for playing James Bond, Timothy Peter Dalton (Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire, Wales, March 21, 1946), has developed his career in film, theater and television, and on stage he has excelled in his interpretation of the classics of William Shakespeare, as a member, among others, of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It was the theater that pushed him to dedicate himself to acting, after seeing a performance of ‘MacBeth’ at the age of 16, after which he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began his career on stage with the National Youth company. Theater, with which he debuted in 1964 with the play ‘Coriolanus’.
It was the first of many Shakespearean creations he performed in more than four decades of theater; It was followed, among others, by ‘The Merchant of Venice’, ‘Richard III’, ‘MacBeth’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ or ‘The Taming of the Shrew’.
“You cannot relate to a superhero, to a superman, but you can identify with a real man who in times of crisis extracts an extraordinary quality from within and succeeds, but only after a fight. True courage is knowing what you are up against and knowing how to deal with it ”, says the actor about the interpretation of a character.
Among Timothy Dalton’s dozens of television works since his debut on the small screen in 1967 with ‘Sat’day While Sunday’, stand out series such as ‘Centennial’ (1978), ‘Charlie’s Angels’ (1979), ‘Jane Eyre’ (1983), ‘Scarlett’ (1994), ‘Cleopatra’ (1999), ‘Hercules’ (2005), ‘Doctor Who’ (2009-2010), ‘Penny Dreadful’ (2014-2016) or ‘Doom Patrol’, released in 2019.
If his passage through the James Bond saga is the one that gave him international fame, his biggest box office success came in 2010 with ‘The Tourist’, more than four decades after his first film, ‘The Lion in Winter’ (1968) , starring Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn, and with whom he began a film career that in recent times has focused on animation: since 2010 Dalton has been the voice of Mr. Prickleplants, one of the characters in ‘Toy Story’ .
His filmography includes films such as ‘Flash Gordon’ (1980), ‘The Rocketeer’ (1991), ‘Looney Tunes: Back in Action’ (2003), ‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007) or the 1997 film ‘The Informant’ , in whose presentation in Venice the actor said “goodbye to James Bond and his adventures. It was fun, but it’s over. “
By Miriam Soto.
EFE / REPORTS
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