Pierce Brosnan - 007

Next on my list of celebrity autographs is Pierce Brosnan, the man who, in 1995, reinvigorated the James Bond movie franchise after it's 6 year absence from the silver screen. He's appeared in many other films, The Lawnmower Man, Mrs Doubtfire, and Dante's Peak, but since I'm a Bond nut, I'm devoting this blog to his years in the tuxedo.

Brosnan first came to the attention of Eon Productions, the team behind the cinematic super spy, back in 1981 when his wife, the late Cassandra Harris, played the role of Countess Lisl alongside Roger Moore in the brilliant For Yours Eyes Only.

When Roger left the role after 1985's A View To A Kill, Eon tried to secure Brosnan's contract, however he could not break free of his commitments to the TV series Remington Steele. 10 years later, Timothy Dalton said "thanks but no thanks" (apparently) to reprising his role for a third time, so Pierce was finally secured.

Brosnan as James Bond

1995's Goldeneye saw an all-new James Bond. Not just in his appearance, but also his character. Gone were his cigarettes, his dark brooding manner (introduced by Dalton), and gone was his overt sexually. Sure, he necked with Caroline in his Aston Martin DB5, had a hot sweaty romp with Xenia Onatopp in a spa, but it wasn't until he met Russian computer programmer Natalya Simonova that he finally did the nasty.

Buoyed by the box office success of Goldeneye, 1997's follow up Tomorrow Never Dies had one of the fastest production times for a Bond film since the 60's. It had some great elements, an interesting plot, and (in true Bond style) some cracking stunts, but if you took away all of the action, the film would probably have been 30 minutes long. If they had've allowed a longer pre-production time, the film may have been better. Also, screening it alongside James Cameron's Titantic was a poor decision.

1999 gave us The World Is Not Enough, my personal favourite. Brosnan finally seems comfortable in the role of Bond. With the longest pre-title sequence of all time, we get to see Brosnan fall out of a three storey window in Bilboa, take the Q-Boat on an action packed tour of the Thames, and ride a hot air balloon. The film also has Denise Richards (aka Dr Christmas Jones) parading around in next to nothing, with a great wet t-shirt competition in a nuclear sub near the end (I'm no expert but I think she won that competition).

The longest gap between films brought us to 2002's Die Another Day, which is the first time since 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service that a Bond film would use CGI (to it's detriment, I might add). 40 years since the first Bond film, Die Another Day was a celebration of all things 007, and you can spend hours trying to pick out all of the references. In terms of Box Office, it was also Brosnan's best, so you can see how he'd be miffed to then be axed from the role, in favour of the younger Daniel Craig.

This leads me to my autograph (I bet you forgot all about that, didn't you?). In late 2002 I was fortunate enough to see Brosnan at Melbourne's Crown Casino for the premier of Die Another Day. I wasn't one of the red carpet attendees, and I didn't even have a ticket, but I did wait for 2 hours under the hot December sun, just to catch a few minutes of 007 in the flesh. I didn't have anything for him to sign, so I was happy just to take photos. Oh, and Rosamund Pike was there as well. Lovely.

So, this shot was taken with an old film camera (remember them?) and I sent the best image to Pierce in the mail. About 2 months later, this is what I received. That's his autograph along with a PEACE symbol. Groovy man. Before you say it's a fake, please note that I have had this authenticated by a German collector (God bless the Germans).



It's nice to know that even big name Hollywood movie stars like Pierce Brosnan will sign autographs through the mail.