Early Life: Pierce Brosnan was born in County Meath, Ireland. Born as the only son of Thomas, a carpenter and May Brosnan, Pierce had been forced to face some bitter experience during his early life which was started with his father leaving the family when he was barely one year old. At the age of 4, his mother also left him to work as a nurse in London, as a result of which Pierce had to undergo a nomadic life, moving frequently from one place to another to live under the nurture of several relatives and friends. It was not until the year 1964 that he was finally reunited with his mother May, who then took the 11-year-old boy to settle in with her new husband, a Scottish World War II veteran named William Carmichael. Carmichael, not only served as a great father figure but was also the one who first introduced him to the excitement of cinematic experience when they went to watch Goldfinger (1964) which triggered an interest in acting. Pierce gave up studying at London`s Elliott School at the age of 16 to learn more about performing, he spent the next several years at workshops before he enrolled in London`s Drama Center by 1973. He confidently embarked on his journey to pursue an acting career and quickly landed a part in a stage production of Wait Until Dark followed by a more noteworthy role in the British premiere of Tennessee Williams` Red Devil Battery Sign which led him to the BBC`s TV movie, Murphy`s Stroke (1979). As the feature surprisingly came to the attention of American producers, Pierce was immediately billed to be the male lead in their acclaimed miniseries, The Manions Of America (1981). This paved his way in American film industry as he was selected to play the title character in NBC`s Remington Steele by the following year, prompting him to settle in Los Angeles eventually.
Career Highlights: The series became a huge hit across the country and garnered a lot of attention from the public. He scored a nomination at the Golden Globe Awards in 1985 for the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV through his role in the 1982 British miniseries, Nancy Astor. His rising status in U.S. got the attention of a renowned British-based company, that was considering him as the next 007 in its 15th installment of the James Bond film series to replace
Roger Moore. Since Remington Steele was about to wrap up production, Pierce enthusiastically accepted the offer, but the wide exposure he received due to this agreement evoked the network to revive the show for another year. Bound by the contract, Pierce stuck on with the series until its last episode in 1987 and therefore lost the role in The Living Daylights, the Bond film he supposed to star in. Disappointed but not devastated, he moved on with various big and small screen productions, such as The Fourth Protocol (1987), NBC`s miniseries of Around the World in 80 Days (1989), Victim of Love (1991), and The Lawnmower Man (1992). By 1993, Pierce had already maintained quite a solid career in Hollywood, particularly after he appeared in
Chris Columbus` drama comedy hit,
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) while also acted as special agent Michael `Mike` Graham in two TV-movie adaptations of Alistair McLean`s novels, Death Train (1993) and Night Watch (1995). His first Bond movie, Golden Eye (1995) became a worldwide box-office hit with the income of more than 353 million U.S. Dollars. It came as no surprise that, when he did take over, the ailing Bond franchise enjoyed its greatest successes ever. He played Bond three more times, in
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day(2002). Outside of playing the smooth but deadly super spy, Brosnan has tackled several dramatic and comedic roles. He has appeared in such films as The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Laws of Attraction (2004), The Matador (2005), Mama Mia (2008) and All you need is love (2012) among other big-screen productions. He was last seen in
The November Man (2014). His other projects include The November Man (2014), The Moon and The Sun (2015), The Only Living Boy in New York (2017),
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) and False Positive (2021).
- Pierce worked as a taxi driver, a fire- eater and a cleaned people`s houses before his acting career took off.
- He experienced difficulties in filming certain scenes in
Dante`s Peak (1997) due to his phobia of closed spaces.