Daniel Craig (Actor)

Daniel Craig at the premiere for Casino Royal in Madrid, Spain. (Photo: Carlos Alvarez / Getty Images)

About Daniel Craig

Throughout his early career, actor Daniel Craig enjoyed the anonymity that comes with not being an A-list actor talent. That changed, however, when it was announced that he was considered for the role of James Bond in the adaptation of Ian Flemings’ “Casino Royale” (2006), a reboot of the series widely considered to be the franchise’s return to form. Craig denied rumors that he was offered a three-picture deal – at the time, Pierce Brosnan was still in the running to continue his reign as the famed British agent. But rumors were enough to blow the lid off Craig’s obscurity and thrust the actor known to loathe publicity into the limelight, especially after he did indeed become the sixth actor to play 007. Even if he were not considered for the role, his increasingly high-profile work in films such as "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001), “Munich” (2005) and "Layer Cake" (2005) would have made him a star regardless.

Born on March 2, 1968 in Chester, England – also known as the Walled City – Craig grew up in nearby Liverpool, where his mother studied art at university and his stepfather, the painter Max Blond, plied his craft. At 16, he moved to London to train at the National Youth Theatre and later graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1992, Craig made his film debut in the coming-of-age drama, “The Power of One,” wherein he played an Afrikaner soldier who beats and humiliates a white South African boxer (Stephen Dorff) trained by a black man (Morgan Freeman). Craig then appeared in “Genghis Cohn” (A&E, 1993), a satire about a Nazi SS officer (Robert Lindsay) confronted with the ghost of a Jewish comedian (Antony Sher) he killed in a concentration camp. After playing a commoner involved in a forbidden love with King Arthur’s daughter in the children’s fantasy, “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court” (1995), Craig gained fame in native England playing a hapless musician turned homeless person in the BBC’s “Our Friends in the North” (1996), an ambitious nine-part serial about the lives of four friends spanning thirty years.

In the PBS adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s “Moll Flanders” (1996), he played the enterprising bride’s one true love. He next appeared in the romantic thriller, “Obsession” (1997), wherein he was one of several characters whose divergent lives cross in Berlin. The period biopic, “Love is the Devil” (1998), offered him an opportunity to expand his range. Playing petty thief George Dyer, renowned painter Francis Bacon’s lover and artistic inspiration, Craig earned critical kudos in a film otherwise subjected to mixed reviews. A return to PBS in “The Ice House” (1998) found Craig playing an assistant investigator who doubts the Chief Inspector’s conclusion that a recently discovered corpse is the dead husband of a woman previously suspected in his disappearance. That same year, he appeared in “Elizabeth,” the widely acclaimed historical biopic starring an Oscar-snubbed Cate Blanchett as the Virgin Queen.

After landing major roles in smaller projects – the World War I drama “The Trench” (1999) and the late 19th century drama “Love and Rage” (1999) – Craig earned a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a schizophrenic man adjusting to the real world after his release from an institution in “Some Voices” (2000). He next appeared in a supporting role in the bland and uninspired romantic adventure, “I Dreamed of Africa” (2000), starring a well-meaning Kim Basinger. Craig then made the jump to larger Hollywood fare, appearing as old flame and fellow tomb raider Alex West in the live-action take on the popular video game, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001), starring Angelina Jolie. In “Road to Perdition” (2002), he was the angry son of an Irish mobster (Paul Newman) who treats one of his hit men (Tom Hanks) like the son he never had. He next played poet Ted Hughes, husband to feminist icon Sylvia Plath (Gwyneth Paltrow), who committed suicide after he left their deteriorated marriage, in the uneven biopic, “Sylvia” (2003).

Craig caused a stir in the unsettling erotic drama, “The Mother” (2004), playing a man who beds a woman (Anne Reid) twice his age while sleeping with her daughter. The stark May-December romance earned rave reviews, but made little impression at the box office. After a stint as a university professor stalked by another man (Rhys Ifans) in the Hitchcockian “Enduring Love” (2004), he was an inmate at an institute for the criminally insane in the derivative thriller, “The Jacket” (2005). Meanwhile, the Bond rumors began to swirl amidst the release of “Layer Cake” (2005), a crime comedy from Matthew Vaughn, producer of “Snatch” (2001) and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1999). Craig played a cocaine dealer seeking early retirement who is forced by a crime boss to find the missing daughter of an old pal (Michael Gambon). Meanwhile, Craig was cast by Steven Spielberg to co-star in “Munich” (2005), the true story about the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics and the secret Mossad mission to exact revenge. Craig delivered a razor-edged performance as the one member of the team who whole-heartedly embraces the righteousness of their mission.

Just prior to the release of “Munich” and after months of speculation, Craig was officially revealed as the next James Bond in October 2005, becoming only the second British actor to play the role, though he held the distinction of being the first blond. Initially, Craig was greeted with concern – and in some corners, outright scorn – from critics, who felt his shorter stature – he was under 6-feet tall – and golden locks went against author Ian Fleming’s original vision of the character. Adding injury to insult, Craig reportedly lost two teeth while filming a fight scene, but it turned out that he had simply lost a crown. Nonetheless, the media hounds enjoyed their continued snipping at the actor’s heels. When “Casino Royal” (2006) was released, however, critics suddenly changed their tune, stating that the film was one of the best in years and that Craig rivaled Sean Connery with his complex and in-depth take on the Bond character. Meanwhile, Craig starred opposite Nicole Kidman in “The Invasion” (2007), a fourth film adaptation of Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. After voicing Lord Asriel in “The Golden Compass” (2007) and playing a hedonistic British actor nearing the end of his career in “Flashbacks of a Fool” (2008), Craig returned to the James Bond role for the highly-anticipated “Quantum of Solace” (2008).

Notes

"Daniel's always been very determined and focused," Wilson says. "He's had his ups and downs, and he's been acknowledged as a great actor. When success comes to people too early, it can affect their personalities. I've seen it happen. Somebody his age who has worked his way up has a better perspective on fame and fortune. I don't think he's the kind of guy who'll get drunk and beat up guys in bars and drive off a cliff. Daniel will keep his head." - James Bond producer, Michael G. Wilson to The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 12, 2006

"I know it's a cliché, but I think successful acting careers are about making the next thing you do better than the last. It's a question of not looking at normal things but trying to do the odd and unusual things." - from Anwar Brett's interview: "Rising Star: Daniel Craig" Sep. 16, 1998

"The fact is, 20 years' time sitting in the corner of the bar going 'I could've been Bond' is not a place I want to be. But if I'm 20 years down sitting in the corner of a bar going, 'Yeah, and I did this and that instead,' then I'll be happy." - Craig on the rumors regarding him playing James Bond, to EW, May 27, 2005

"When I accepted the job to work on Bond, I genuinely did it to change my life. I knew that it would flip everything on its head. I can say, hand on heart, though, that I've never made movies for money - I've always made them because I've truly wanted to do them." - Craig to Interview, July 2007

A group of Bond fans launched a web site www.craignotbond.com to protest the hiring of Craig and boycott the movie. In response to the protests, Roger Moore was quoted as saying, "He's a helluva good actor," noting that critics haven't even seen Craig in the role yet. "So why attack him?"

In “The Golden Compass” (2007), Craig stars as Lord Asriel, which was previously played by Timothy Dalton in a London theater production. Craig and Dalton also, of course, shared the role of James Bond.