Pierce Brendan Brosnan is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day) and in multiple video games.
Early Life
Brosnan was born on 16 May 1953 in Drogheda, County Louth, the only child of May (née Smith) and carpenter Thomas Brosnan. He has the same name as his grandfather, Pierce Brosnan, who in turn was named after his parents’ surnames: John Brosnan and Margaret Pierce.[better source needed] For 12 years, he lived in Navan, County Meath, and said in 1999 that he considers it to be his hometown. His father abandoned the family when Brosnan was an infant. When he was four years old, his mother moved to London to work as a nurse. From that point on, he was largely brought up by his maternal grandparents, Philip and Kathleen Smith. After their deaths, he lived with an aunt and then an uncle, but was subsequently sent to live in a boarding house run by a woman named Eileen. He later said, “Childhood was fairly solitary. I never knew my father. He left when I was an infant. […] To be Irish Catholic in the 1950s, and have a marriage which was not there, a father who was not there […] the mother, the wife suffered greatly. My mother was very courageous. She took the bold steps to go away and be a nurse in England. Basically wanting a better life for her and myself. My mother came home once a year, twice a year.”
Brosnan was brought up in a Catholic family, and educated in a local school run by the De La Salle Brothers while serving as an altar boy. He left Ireland on 12 August 1964 and went to Scotland to be reunited with his mother and her new husband, William Carmichael, at their home in Longniddry. Carmichael took Brosnan to see a James Bond film for the first time (Goldfinger) at the age of 11. They later moved back to London, where Brosnan was educated at Elliott School in Putney, now known as Ark Putney Academy. When discussing his transition from Ireland to England, he said, “When you go to a very large city, a metropolis like London, as an Irish boy of 10, life suddenly moves pretty fast. […] And you’re Irish. And they make you feel it; the British have a wonderful way of doing that, and I had a certain deep sense of being an outsider.” His nickname at school was simply “Irish”.
After leaving school at 16, Brosnan decided to be a painter and began training in commercial illustration at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London. While attending a rehearsal for a workshop at the Ovalhouse, he saw a fire eater teaching people how to eat fire and decided to join in. He trained for three years as an actor at the Drama Centre London. Describing the feeling of becoming an actor and the influence it had on his life, he said, “When I found acting, or when acting found me, it was a liberation. It was a stepping stone into another life, away from a life that I had, and acting was something I was good at, something which was appreciated. That was a great satisfaction in my life.”
Career
After leaving school at age 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration and went on to attend the Drama Centre in London for three years. Following a stage acting career, he rose to popularity in the television series Remington Steele (1982–1987). After the conclusion of the series, Brosnan appeared in films such as the Cold War spy film The Fourth Protocol (1987) and the comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). After achieving worldwide fame for his role as James Bond, Brosnan took the lead in other major films including the epic disaster adventure film Dante’s Peak (1997) and the remake of the heist film The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). Since leaving the role of Bond, he has starred in films such as the musical comedy Mamma Mia! (2008), the political thriller The Ghost Writer (2010), the action fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), the action spy thriller The November Man (2014) and the Mamma Mia! sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). In 2022, Brosnan played Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate in the DC Extended Universe film Black Adam.
Brosnan has received two Golden Globe Award nominations, for the miniseries Nancy Astor (1982) and for the dark comedy film The Matador (2005). In 1996, along with American film producer Beau St. Clair, he formed a Los Angeles-based production company called Irish DreamTime. He is also known for his charitable work and environmental activism. In 1997, Brosnan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry. In 2020, he was listed at No. 15 on The Irish Times’ list of greatest Irish film actors.
Personal Life
Brosnan has married twice, having been widowed once and has five children and four grandchildren.
He met Australian actress Cassandra Harris through her stepson David Harris, the nephew of Richard Harris, shortly after leaving drama school.
They began dating and bought a house in Wimbledon. They married in December 1980 and had one son together, Sean, who was born on 13 September 1983 and later became an actor. They also lived with Harris’ children, Charlotte (1971–2013) and Chris, and Brosnan adopted them after their father Dermot Harris died in 1986; they subsequently took on his surname.
Harris became seriously ill. She was later diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died on 28 December 1991 at age 43.
His adopted daughter Charlotte also died of ovarian cancer, on 28 June 2013.
In 1994, Brosnan met American journalist Keely Shaye Smith in Mexico. They were married in 2001 at Ballintubber Abbey in Ireland. They have two sons together named Dylan and Paris.
In July 2003, Queen Elizabeth II made Brosnan an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his “outstanding contribution to the British film industry”. As an Irish citizen, he is ineligible to receive the full OBE honour, which is awarded only to a citizen of the Commonwealth realms, but he is still allowed the letters “OBE” after his name. In 2002, he was also awarded an honorary degree from the Dublin Institute of Technology and, a year later, the University College Cork. On 23 September 2004, he became an American citizen while retaining his Irish citizenship.
What is Pierce Brosnan’s Net Worth?
The Irish actor who has a net worth of $200 million
