It’s no accident that Pierce Brosnan still looks as good as he does. Now 73, the suave actor has paid particular attention to his health and fitness over the years.
‘Keely [Shaye Smith, his wife] keeps me on track,’ Brosnan recently told The Times ahead of the release of MobLand season two.
‘I walk away from some of the great stuff in life: the cocktails or the beer. I stay away from the bread and the butter and the pasta. And I exercise: I walk the beach, go swimming, ride the bike, play tennis.’
While Brosnan’s approach to staying fit may not involve a strict gym routine, it’s clear that staying active is important to him. Brosnan also picked up Pilates in 2018, sharing a social media post of him practising on a reformer machine. It’s all part of an approach that helps to build a strong body prepared to deal with long filming days.
The importance of sport in Brosnan’s life is also clear to see, with it remaining a constant in his life regardless of the role he is readying himself for. That’s an approach he’s always maintained: unlike the more physical, combative and muscular Daniel Craig, Brosnan preferred an athletic, leaner aesthetic when he was playing James Bond.
‘There wasn’t a really big aesthetic brief – we weren’t in an era of Marvel superhero physiques,’ Simon Waterson, who worked with Brosnan during his time as Bond, told Esquire.
Achieving such a physique meant spending less of his routine in the gym and more doing a variety of different exercises. And it’s an approach that has clearly continued into his later life.
‘Pierce liked to do a variety of things,’ Waterson explained to The Sun. ‘He’s not necessarily a big gym guy even though he knows it’s important. We played tennis and golf, went mountain biking, walking and jogging. I was almost not the fitness expert with him, more like his buddy fitness entertainer.’
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Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_