![\"Timothy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/timothy-dalton-james-bond.jpg\")
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Timothy Dalton played James Bond in The Living Daylights<\/a> and Licence To Kill<\/a>, but the actor told Vanity Fair<\/a> that he previously turned down the opportunity to replace Sean Connery after Diamonds Are Forever.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a time when Sean Connery was leaving. I can\u2019t say I was\u00a0offered\u00a0it, but I was asked if I\u2019d like to do it or not,\u201d Dalton explained. \u201cAnd I said \u2018No,\u2019 because it seemed to me that the age of 24 or 25 doesn\u2019t seem quite right for this character. \u2026 He needs to be [older]. You could play it at that younger age, but I don\u2019t know that I\u2019d believe it that much.\u201d <\/p>\n Related Dalton doesn\u2019t regret turning down the role at that time, saying, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to follow Sean Connery, who was truly, truly magnificent \u2014 and who I had been watching in the role since I was 13 or 14. No, don\u2019t do that.\u201d Roger Moore ultimately became the next James Bond, appearing in seven installments of the franchise. By the time Moore stepped down following A View to Kill in 1985, Dalton was ready to take the job.<\/p>\n \u201cI was doing\u00a0\u2018The Taming of the Shrew\u2019\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018Antony and Cleopatra\u2019\u00a0at the Haymarket Theatre in the West End of London,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t chasing it. I remember being in a hotel room thinking, \u2018What the f*** am I going to do about this?\u2019 And then I thought, \u2018Well, it\u2019s a once in a lifetime, isn\u2019t it?\u2019 Does good sense say, \u2018Go and do something else,\u2019 or does good sense say, \u2018Take a once-in-a-lifetime and\u00a0then\u00a0go and do something else\u2019? So you go and do it.\u201c<\/p>\n The James Bond franchise is in a strange place at the moment. Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are stepping away<\/a> after giving control to Amazon MGM Studios, who reportedly paid around $1 billion<\/a> for the privilege. Denis Villeneuve will be directing the first film they\u2019re not involved in. Dalton previously said<\/a> he was \u201cvery surprised and shocked\u201d that Broccoli and Wilson had left, but expressed hope that Amazon will be able to do right by the franchise. \u201cThe movies have taken different courses over the years, but there is something very good about the original and I hope Amazon latch onto that and give us the kind of film that\u2019s brought so much excitement and fun to so many people,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cAnyway, good luck to them, I say. I do wish them all the very, very best. They\u2019ll be doing their best to make a lot of money, so hopefully they will make good movies.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timothy Dalton played James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill, but the actor told Vanity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,5453,2839,21032,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-35406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-james-bond","tag-movies","tag-timothy-dalton","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n Timothy Dalton is \u201cshocked\u201d that Amazon is now in control of the James Bond franchise <\/a><\/p>\n