Pierce Steeles Bond
Biography
Date of Birth: May 16, 1953
Place of Birth: Navan, County Meath, Ireland
Off-hand charm and self-deprecating comic timing were two of the qualities this dashing Irish-born leading man brought to his
winning portrayal of the sophisticated, often inept, con man/private investigator Remington Steele on the long-running TV
series (NBC, 1982-87) of the same name. Pierce Brosnan, a former commercial illustrator who has garnered frequent
comparisons to Cary Grant, became so popular in this role that he was selected by readers polled by a national magazine as the
favored actor to replace the departing Roger Moore in the highly profitable James Bond series. However, contractual
obligations to Remington Steele, where he starred opposite Stephanie Zimbalist, made him unavailable and the baton was
passed to Timothy Dalton. Pierce Brosnan finally received his cinematic license to kill in 1994 when he was named as the new
007. He proved an elegant yet hard-edged Bond in GoldenEye (1995).
Pierce Brosnan entered show business as a teen runaway, working with the circus as a fire eater. He gained somewhat more
conventional experience as a member of an experimental London theater workshop before making his stage debut in a 1976
production of Wait Until Dark. Pierce Brosnan's theatrical breakthrough came from playwright Tennessee Williams who chose
the handsome young actor to create the role of McCabe in the British premiere of his Red Devil Battery Sign. Additional stage
work followed before his film debut in a character turn in the well-received Brit gangster film, The Long Good Friday (1981).
America first discovered the slender, dark-haired performer on TV in the miniseries The Manions of America (ABC, 1981) as
Rory O'Manion, an Irish immigrant who makes it big in 19th century America. This successful exposure lead to his being cast as
Steele. Pierce Brosnan turned up on a number of specials during the series' run and one failed feature, Nomads (1986), in
which he played a bedeviled French anthropologist. The transition to film actor proved difficult, but TV offered regular work in
telefilms and miniseries. Pierce Brosnan was well cast as urbane eccentric Phineas Fogg in a miniseries adaptation of Jules
Verne's novel Around the World in 80 Days (NBC, 1989). He became a familiar face in made-for-cable thrillers, notably
playing special agent Mike Graham in Alistair MacLean's Death Train (USA, 1993) and Alistair MacLean's Night Watch
(USA, 1995).
Pierce Brosnan initially found little success in features. He starred in the poorly received Ismail Merchant-produced adventure
The Deceivers (1988) but received some positive notices for his portrayal of a Russian agent opposite Michael Caine in The
Fourth Protocol (1987). He enjoyed a measure of popular success playing a scientist in the derivative special F/X fest, The
Lawnmower Man (1992). Pierce Brosnan also played the supporting role of Stu, the other man, in the immensely successful if
mild comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). His subsequent casting as the English secret agent ensured a renewed career as a feature
lead.
Pierce Brosnan was married to actress Cassandra Harris from the 1970s until her death in 1991 of ovarian cancer.
The opening monologue of Remington Steele
Wav file of Remington Steele intro
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