Unless something most unusual occurs, Daniel Craig is about to become a former James Bond. He will be the latest Bond emeritus. Just as former American presidents fair differently in the real world – Richard Nixon went on an epic sulk; Jimmy Carter worked his way towards a Nobel Peace Prize – Bonds emeriti have had differing experiences of life without a licence to kill.
There has long been a myth abroad that the role of James Bond swallows careers whole. Once you’ve defeated Dr Atrocious and his Persian cat, nobody will take you seriously. This has never really been so. Craig, whose period as the longest serving official Bond ends this week (we think) with the release of No Time to Die, can look forward to many years as a distinguished survivor of the franchise.
Sean Connery offers the model example. The Scotsman did not have much time to branch out in the busy rush between the release of Dr No, in 1962, and You Only Live Twice, in 1967. But he managed to make the creepy Marnie for Alfred Hitchcock and, for Sidney Lumet, the robust war drama The Hill. By the time he left official Bond for a second time, after Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971, Connery had already demonstrated that he could survive away from Ian Fleming's imperial thuggery.
He worked consistently and fruitfully for the next three decades. He is excellent in The Name of the Rose, The Man Who Would be King, and Robin and Marian. He won an Oscar for The Untouchables. Though he had barely passed 40 when he made Diamonds Are Forever, he spent the rest of his career playing a creaky old geezer who had seen better days. Actors became old men sooner in the 1970s. Don’t expect Craig, now 53, to slip into senior roles quite so quickly.
Roger Moore showed how the position of Bond emeritus can be exploited for the common good. In later years he worked tirelessly on behalf of Unicef. He was, in that sense at least, more of a Jimmy Carter than a Richard Nixon
The notion that 007 annihilates the rest of your professional life dates to the Roger Moore era. George Lazenby, the Australian star of the fan favourite On Her Majesty's Secret Service, did not have a thriving extra-Bond life, but, having been plucked from almost total obscurity to deliver a tepidly received performance, he was never expected to become the next Cary Grant. Remember him in Four Dogs Playing Poker? Remember him in Hell Hunters? Thought not.
Moore was, in contrast, a much admired matinee idol by the time he took up the role for Live and Let Die, in 1973. Indeed, a case could be made that, star of the hugely popular show The Saint, Moore remains, at point of investiture, the best-known actor to play the part. Yet he was the one most hemmed in by what had become an institution. Spitting Image, the 1980s satirical puppet show, characterised him as a largely immobile presence who did most of his acting with a single eyebrow.
“When I was poncing around as Bond I would do 4,000 interviews on one film,” he told me in 2004. “They clocked-up 190 journalists on one set while we were filming and 188 wanted to do an in-depth interview. I didn’t have time to breathe – not that it took very long to say, ‘My name is Bond.’ So I ended up lying in the interviews. You just get bored.”
He made few other films of note when in office. He made fewer still after the baton had passed. Moore did, however, demonstrate how the position of Bond emeritus can be exploited for the common good. In later years he worked tirelessly on behalf of Unicef. He was, in that sense at least, more of a Carter than a Nixon.
Timothy Dalton came to the role with as much theatre experience as cinema experience and, when his brief run ended, essentially stepped back into the modestly paced stream from which he had emerged in 1987. He was Rhett Butler in Scarlett, a TV sequel to Gone With the Wind. He played Lord Asriel (a role we will return to) in the National Theatre's much admired production of His Dark Materials. And, of course, he gave great luvvie as Mr Pricklepants in the Toy Story films. Dalton is, perhaps, the actor whose career was least altered by his time as Bond.
Craig can look forward to life as the latest Bond emeritus. Forget the idea that life without Miss Moneypenny is a parade of regional pantomimes and advertisements for premium Japanese whisky
Pierce Brosnan has done all right for himself. While still Bond, he was super in John McTiernan's The Thomas Crown Affair and John Boorman's The Tailor of Panama. In his emeritus years he received acclaim in The Ghost Writer and, as part of the Mamma Mia! team, enjoyed life in a British cinematic phenomenon for the ages. No career death there.
All of which is a way of clarifying that Craig need not feel any trepidation about embarking on life away from the Bond cocoon. He knows this. Partly as a result of the stop-start nature of his tenure – four years between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall; six between Spectre and the release of No Time to Die – he has had the busiest career of any previous sitting Bond.
He starred opposite his current partner, Rachel Weisz, in a production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, on Broadway. He was Iago to David Oyelowo's Othello in the same city. There has been some misfortune. Playing Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass (see Dalton, above) and Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, he saw two potential film series dwindle away after just one episode, but nobody blames him for the failure of those franchises to progress. Both films were ruinously expensive. The aftermaths were differently complicated. The jinx was lifted with the success of the comedy-thriller Knives Out, in 2019. He will return as Detective Benoit Blanc in a sequel at which Netflix has already thrown indecent amounts of money.
News is breaking even now of his next leap away from the Aston Martin. Hours before No Time to Die was due to hit cinemas it emerged that Craig will star opposite our own Ruth Negga in a Broadway production of Macbeth.
So Craig can look forward to life as the latest Bond emeritus. Forget the idea that life without Miss Moneypenny is a parade of regional pantomimes and advertisements for premium Japanese whisky. Heck, if nothing else works, you can always come back as James Bond. Connery was about the same age as Craig is now when he returned for the unofficial Never Say Never Again. Stranger things have happened.
