Women swoon over him and men aspire to be like him. That’s how we all see this dashing debonair of a man, Pierce Brosnan. An Irish-born actor and producer, he is best known for his most iconic role as James Bond in the movie franchise from 1995 to 2004. With an accent to die for, his lady fans would like to know, is Pierce Brosnan married?
Pierce Brosnan has been married to Keely Shaye Smith for 28 years now. The two met in the resort city of Cabo, Mexico in 1994 and dated for three years before officially getting married on August 4, 2001, at Ballintubber Abbey in County Mayo, Ireland. The couple is blessed with two boys, Dylan and Paris.
Earlier in life, Pierce Brosnan was first married to Australian actress Cassandra Harris in December 1980. He met her shortly after leaving drama school through her stepson David Harris. Brosnan was captivated by her beauty and married her in December 1980. They had one son, Sean, in September 1983, but continued to live with Harris’ children in her previous marriage. In 1986, Brosnan adopted her two children, Charlotte and Chris, after their father passed away.
Early Works
Before landing the biggest role of his life, Brosnan worked in the West End with his acting debut in the play, Wait Until Dark. His performance in The Red Devil Battery Sign was greatly lauded, and for his next project, he was hand-picked by director Franco Zeffirelli to appear in the play Filumena by Eduardo De Filippo.
He achieved more popularity for playing a lead role in the miniseries Manions of America. Then followed it up with another miniseries based on the life of the first woman to sit in the British Parliament. He played the role of Robert Gould Shaw II, which gave him a 1985 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Things are looking up for the Irish star. By 1982, he and his family moved to Southern California for him to land another television role in the crime drama series Remington Steele. His role as a pretend detective has somehow paved the way for the audiences to see him as a possible “young James Bond”, a role that his wife Cassandra wanted him to play.
When Remington Steele ended in 1987, Brosnan went on to play small parts in television movies and films, including Mrs. Doubtfire opposite Robin Williams and Sally Field.
Becoming Bond
Hollywood was getting ready to meet the new and fifth person to play the dashing MI6 spy James Bond. But before being cast, his wife Cassandra, who played the Countess Lisl von Schlaf, mistress to Milos Columbo in For Your Eyes Only, introduced her husband to Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli. After that meeting, it was said that Brosnan was to inherit the title role from Robert Moore.
Due to some Hollywood legal squabbles, and bound by his television contract, Brosnan lost the role to Timothy Dalton, who played a dark, stern, and ruthless kind of Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill.
Dalton’s portrayal had mixed reviews, citing that this “realistic approach” to the character showed that Bond is indeed a man and not a superhuman, who “had violent tendencies, beset with moral confusions and apathies and uncertainties, and who is often very frightened and nervous and tense”.
After the Bond series hiatus, Brosnan was finally announced to be the next James Bond. He had a three-picture contract with a possibility of a fourth film. The long wait was actually advantageous for Brosnan because it gave him enough time to mature as an actor.
His struggles and victories leading to this moment have somehow given him the ability to combine a high degree of suavity, elegance, charm, and wit” with masculinity and grittiness for his portrayal of this iconic character.
Dubbed as the “quintessential Bond”, Brosnan’s GoldenEye evokes a “flair for wit to go with his natural charm” and his lithe athleticism draws focus on the fast-paced action and state-of-the-art gadgetry that retains the series’ core appeal”. The film reached a gross of $350 million sales worldwide, making it the fourth-highest worldwide gross of any film in 1995.
Brosnan returns in Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997 and The World Is Not Enough in 1999. Both did well at the box office but received mixed reviews from critics. In his fourth and final Bond film, Die Another Day, Brosnan earned a whopping $16.5 Million but considered himself “dismissed from this role” due to a decision made by Eon Productions.
Post Bond
With a colorful career and a happy family life to boot, Pierce Brosnan is indeed like fine wine–he gets better with age. Since the Bond franchise, he has starred in many other films including Mamma Mia! with Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried where we see him dance and sing! Something very refreshing to see apart from his old-world elegance and appeal.
We can’t wait to see him back on the big screen again this year for the movies Black Adam and The Out-Laws, which are in the post-production stages. No doubt these projects will entertain the audience and continue his legacy in show business.