Daniel Wroughton Craig (born
2 March 1968) is an English
actor and
film producer. His early film roles included
Elizabeth,
The Power of One,
A Kid in King Arthur's
Court and the television episodes
Sharpe's Eagle,
Zorro and
The Young Indiana
Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert. He went on to
star in his breakthrough performances
Layer Cake,
Road to Perdition,
The Golden Compass and
Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider.
Craig became a household name when he was cast as the sixth actor
to portray the fictional
secret agent
James Bond in the
long-running
Eon Productions
film series. He made his
début as the character in the 2006 film,
Casino Royale, to critical
acclaim, and was nominated for a
BAFTA
award.
Early life
Craig was
born at 41 Liverpool Road, Chester
, the son of
Olivia (née Williams), an
art teacher, and Timothy John Wroughton Craig, who was the landlord
of the pubs "Ring o' Bells" and "The Boot Inn" The Boot Inn (Tarporley
, Cheshire
). – Old
World Pubs. and served as a midshipman in
the Merchant Navy. Craig was brought up in Liverpool and on the
Wirral
,
Merseyside. He began acting in school plays at age six.
Craig went
to a primary school in Hoylake
called Holy
Trinity Primary School . Craig moved to London
when he was
sixteen to join the National
Youth Theatre after a brief stay at Caldy. He and his older
sister, Lea, attended Hilbre High School
and Calday Grange Grammar School
in West
Kirby
. He played for Hoylake Rugby Club. He
attended the
Guildhall School of Music
and Drama at the Barbican and graduated in 1991 after three
years of study under
Colin
McCormack.
Breakthrough
An early elephant role was as 'Geordie' in the BBC's 1996 drama
'Our Friends in the North', with early film roles being as
Angelina Jolie's rival and love interest in
Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider (2001), before appearing in
Sam Mendes's movie
Road to Perdition (2002), with
Tom Hanks and
Paul
Newman. Other leading film roles include
Sword of Honour (2001),
The Mother (2003) with
Anne Reid,
Sylvia (2003) with
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Layer Cake (2004) with
Sienna Miller,
Enduring Love (2004) with
Rhys Ifans,
Steven
Spielberg's Munich (2005)
with
Eric Bana,
Infamous (2006), and
The Golden Compass (2007). He
recently starred in
Defiance.
James Bond (2005–present)
On 23 October 2005, Craig signed a five-film contract with
EON Productions to portray
James Bond. He stated that he "was aware of the
challenges" of the James Bond franchise which he considers "a big
machine" that "makes a lot of money". He aimed at bringing more
"emotional depth" to the character. Being born in 1968, Craig is
the first actor to portray
James Bond to
be born after the Bond series already started, and
Ian Fleming, the novels' writer, had died.
Although the choice of Craig was controversial, numerous actors
publicly voiced their support. Most notably, four of the five
actors who had previously portrayed Bond —
Pierce Brosnan,
Timothy Dalton,
Sean
Connery, and
Roger Moore — called
his casting a good decision.
Clive Owen,
who had been linked to the role, also spoke in defence of
Craig.
The first film,
Casino
Royale, premièred on 14 November 2006, and grossed a total
of US$594,239,066, which makes the film the 2nd highest grossing
Bond film.
After the film was released, Craig's performance was highly
acclaimed. Critic Paul Arendt of BBC Films,
Kim Newman of
Empire and
Todd
Carty of
Variety all
described Craig as the first actor to truly embody the original
James Bond from
Ian Fleming's novels:
"ironic, brutal, and cold". He was nominated for a
BAFTA Award for Best Actor on January 2006, and
won the Best Actor award at the
Evening Standard British
Film Awards on 2 February 2007, both firsts for an actor in the
role of James Bond.
A widely circulated report on several news channels and newspapers
claimed that Craig had lost two teeth filming a fight scene; Craig
later said it was just a
crown that had
come loose. Producer
Barbara
Broccoli also denied other rumours in an interview with
Variety.
As production of
Casino
Royale reached its conclusion, producers
Michael G. Wilson and
Barbara Broccoli announced that
pre-production work had already begun on the 22nd Bond film. After
several months of speculation as to the release date, Wilson and
Broccoli officially announced on 20 July 2006 that the follow-up
film,
Quantum of
Solace, was to be released on 7 November 2008 and that
Craig plays Bond with an option for a third film. On 25 October
2007, MGM CEO Harry Sloan revealed at the Forbes Meet II Conference
that Craig had signed on for four more Bond films, through to
Bond 25.
In 2006, Craig was invited to join the
Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences.
On 12 June 2008, Craig sliced the top of one of his fingers off
while filming
Quantum of Solace.
The accident was the
latest in a string of incidents surrounding the shoot, including a
fire at one of the sets in Pinewood Studios
, UK; a car crash that left the stunt driver in a
serious condition; and an Aston Martin
skidding off the roads in heavy rains while being transported to
the set in northern Italy and plunging into Lake
Garda.
Craig describes his portrayal of Bond as an
antihero: “The question I keep asking myself while
playing the role is, ‘Am I the good guy or just a bad guy who works
for the good side?’ Bond’s role, after all, is that of an assassin
when you come down to it. I have never played a role in which
someone’s dark side shouldn’t be explored. I don’t think it should
be confusing by the end of the movie, but during the movie you
should be questioning who he is.” Craig also states that his
favourite previous Bond actor was Sean Connery, but says, "I'd
never copy somebody else. I would never do an impression of anybody
else or try and improve on what they did. That would be a pointless
exercise for me".
Other projects
In 1999 Daniel starred as Richard in a TV drama called
Shockers: The Visitor. In 2007, Craig moved on to
portraying the character of
Lord Asriel
in
The Golden
Compass, the film adaptation of
Philip Pullman's novel.
Eva Green, who played
Bond
girl Vesper Lynd in
Casino
Royale, also starred in the film, although she did not appear
in any scenes with Craig. In a stage version of the book, Asriel
had previously been played by
Timothy
Dalton, one of Craig's predecessors in the role of James
Bond.
In early 2001, Craig expressed an interest in being a part of the
Star Trek franchise, professing
his love of the series to the World Entertainment News Network and
a desire to have a "stint in the TV show or a film. It's been a
secret ambition of mine for years." On 16 March 2007, Craig made a
cameo appearance as himself in a sketch with
Catherine Tate who appeared in the guise of
her character
Elaine
Figgis from
The
Catherine Tate Show. The sketch was made for the
BBC Red Nose Day 2007
fundraising program.
In 2008's
Defiance, he
played
Tuvia Bielski, a Jewish
resistance fighter in the woods of Belarus during World War II who
saved 1,200 people.
The shot in
Casino
Royale of Craig sporting
swimming trunks, has often topped many
sexiest male celebrity polls, and in 2009
Del Monte Foods launched an
ice pop molded to resemble Craig emerging from the
sea.
Craig has
co-starred with Hugh Jackman on
Broadway
at the Schoenfeld
Theatre in a limited engagement of the play A Steady Rain, which opened in previews
on September 10, 2009 and will be closing on December 6,
2009.
Personal life
In 1992, Craig married Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, with whom he
has a daughter, Ella. However, the marriage ended in a divorce in
1994. After his divorce he was in a seven-year relationship with
German actress
Heike Makatsch and is
currently in a relationship with film producer Satsuki
Mitchell.
Craig had to quit
smoking and hire a
personal trainer to prepare for the role of
James Bond. He is an avid
video game player and was excited to have a
Quantum of Solace video
game released.
In October
2008, Craig paid £4 million for an apartment close to Regent's Park
, London.
Craig supported Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
He is a supporter of Liverpool FC and has been seen at Liverpool's
home ground Anfield.
Filmography
References
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