Daniel (I) Craig filmography and biography
Date of birth: 2 March 1968, Chester, Cheshire, England, UK
Daniel (I) Craig biography
Daniel Craig, one of British theatre's most famous faces who was waiting
tables as a struggling teenage actor with the NYT, went on to star as
"James Bond" in Casino Royale and
Quantum of Solace.
He was born Daniel Wroughton Craig on March 2, 1968, at 41 Liverpool
Road, Chester, Cheshire, England. His father, Tim Craig, was a merchant
seaman turned steel erector, then became landlord of "Ring O' Bells"
pub in Frodsham, Cheshire. His mother, Carol Olivia Craig, was an art
teacher. His parents split up in 1972, and young Daniel Craig was
raised with his older sister, Lea, in Liverpool, then in Hoylake,
Wirral, in the home of his mother. His interest in acting was
encouraged by visits to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre arranged by his
mother. From the age of 6, Craig started acting in school plays, making
his debut in the Frodsham Primary School production of "Oliver!", and
his mother was the driving force behind his artistic aspirations. The
first Bond movie he ever saw at the cinema was Roger Moore (I)'s
Live and Let Die; young Daniel Craig saw it with his
father, so it took a special place in his heart. He was also a good
athlete and was a rugby player at Hoylake Rugby Club.
At the age of 14, Craig played roles in "Oliver", "Romeo and Juliet" and
"Cinderella" at Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Wirral, UK. He left
Hilbre High at 16 to audition at the National Youth Theatre's (NYT)
troupe on their tour in Manchester in 1984. He was accepted and moved
down to London. There, his mother and father watched his stage debut as
"Agamemnon" in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida". As a struggling
actor with the NYT, he was toiling in restaurant kitchens and as a
waiter. Craig performed with NYT on tours to Valencia, Spain, and to
Moscow, Russia, under the leadership of director
Edward Wilson (I). He failed at repeated auditions at the
Guildhall, but eventually his persistence paid off, and in 1988, he
entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican. There,
he studied alongside Ewan McGregor and 'Alistair McGowan (I)',
then later Damian Lewis (I) and Joseph Fiennes, among
others. He graduated in 1991, after a three-year course under the
tutelage of Colin McCormack (I), the actor from the Royal
Shakespeare Company. From 1992-1994, he was married to Scottish actress
Fiona Loudon, their daughter, named Ella Craig, was born in
1992. Daniel Craig made his film debut in
The Power of One. His film career continued on
television, notably the BBC2 serial
Our Friends in the North. He shot to international fame
after playing supporting roles in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
and Road to Perdition. He was nominated for his
performances in the leading role in Layer Cake, and
received other awards and nominations. Craig was named as the sixth
actor to portray "James Bond", in October of 2005, weeks after he
finished his work in Munich, where he co-starred with
Eric Bana (I) under the directorship of Steven Spielberg.
Craig's reserved demeanor and his avoidance of the
showbiz-party-red-carpet milieu makes him a cool "007". He is the first
blonde actor to play Bond, and also the first to be born after the
start of the film series, and also the first to be born after the death
of author Ian Fleming (I) in 1964. Four of the past Bond actors:
Sean Connery, Roger Moore (I), Timothy Dalton and
Pierce Brosnan have indicated that Craig is a good choice as
"Bond".
Daniel (I) Craig trivia
- (2001-04) Lived in London with German actress Heike Makatsch.
- He has a daughter, Ella Craig (born 1992), who lives with his
ex-wife 'Fiona Loudon' in London.
- 2000: Named as one of European films 'Shooting Stars' by European Film
Promotion.
- He was nominated for a 2002 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for
Best Actor for his performance in A Number at the Royal Court Theatre
Downstairs.
- One of the many actors considered to take over James Bond from
Pierce Brosnan. He officially accepted the role in October,
2005.
- Was the last actor considered for the role of "Rorschach" in the movie
adaptation of Alan Moore (III)'s comic-book mini-series,
Watchmen.
- Father: Tim Craig
- Mother: Olivia Craig
- Older sister: Lea Craig
- Good friend of supermodel Kate Moss, Gaspard Ulliel and
Nicole Kidman.
- Visited Sarajevo Film Festival (in post-war Bosnia) in 2005.
- Esquire magazine's "Best dressed male" in 2006
- Was the only member of the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider cast to
be a huge fan of the Tomb Raider video games. His favorite in the
series was Tomb Raider II (1997) (VG), released in 1997.
- His girlfriend Satsuki Mitchell accompanied him to the world
premiere of Casino Royale in London. It was their first
public appearance together.
- He's a fan of Liverpool Football Club.
- He is the first Bond actor to have been born after the Bond series
began.
- Appeared in Sharpe's Eagle (1993) (TV) with Sean Bean.
Bean played the villain in GoldenEye, which was directed
by Martin Campbell (I), who also directed
Casino Royale.
- Voted #7 in Elle (France) Magazine's "15 Sexiest Men" poll (June 2007).
- One of 115 people invited to join AMPAS in 2007.
- While being relatively tall standing at 5 feet and 11 inches, he is the
shortest actor to play the role of James Bond.
- October 2007 - Signed on to play "James Bond" in four more films after
Casino Royale.
- Lord Aisrael, his character from The Golden Compass, was
previously played by Timothy Dalton in a London theater
production. Craig and Dalton have also, of course, shared the role of
James Bond.
- Graduated from Guildhall of Music & Drama (London) in 1991.
- Quit smoking before making Casino Royale.
- Between 2005 and 2008, Craig played militant Jewish soldiers or fighters
three times in fairly quick succession: in SorstalansAtilde;iexcl;g
("Fateless"), he plays an American soldier who identifies himself as
Jewish while liberating a concentration camp; in Munich,
he plays the most militant member of a team of Mossad agents assigned
to assassinate the terrorists responsible for killing Israeli athletes
at the 1972 Munich Olympics; and in Defiance (2008/I), he plays
one of three Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to
join the resistance.
- Ranked #29 in the 2008 Telegraph's list "the 100 most powerful people in
British culture".
- Is a big fan of Robert Altman (I) films.
- He was a fan of the fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials by
Philip Pullman, before he was cast in the the trilogy's first
chapter The Golden Compass.
- Became good friends with Nicole Kidman, after they worked
together on The Invasion, and
The Golden Compass.
- While incognito at a cinema in the USA, he was once asked if anyone had
ever told him that he looked like Daniel Craig. He answered "no" and
walked away.
- Was considered for the part of Doctor in Blindness but
Mark Ruffalo was cast instead.
- Lives in London, England.
Daniel (I) Craig quotes
- I go through life thinking it's all going to end tomorrow.
- I don't believe in self-promotion, really I can't be arsed.
- People always say, "That stuff you did in
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
must have been difficult . . . but I say, "No, it wasn't really; that
was some of the easier stuff to do", because it was always clear and
made a lot of sense. It's when things are unclear and when you don't
know what you're doing--that's when things are difficult.
- As far as I'm concerned, I want to be nowhere else. It's difficult in
film because everybody wants to make a safe bet with roles. But if you
are going to do stuff then you should be getting strong reactions. I
don't want audiences to be going, 'Yeah, that's all right.'
- It's something else. I'm speechless. I've just got to step up to the
plate and deal with it. I had a confidence about it but then that's
because of the people around me who made me feel good about it. I knew
positively on Monday. I was in Baltimore when I took the call. My first
reaction was I needed a drink.
- I hate handguns. Handguns are used to shoot people and as long as they
are around, people will shoot each other. That's a simple fact. I've
seen a bullet wound and it was a mess. It was on a shoot and it scared
me. Bullets have a nasty habit of finding their target and that's
what's scary about them.
- I kind of feel that if you look at the track record of most Bonds - I
mean Sean Connery obviously defined the part, and even he
struggled for a while to get rid of the mantle. That's the pitfall and
it could happen to me. I've been working so hard, for however long it
is I've been doing this, to try and stick to doing stuff I totally
believe in and that would be wiped out. I thought, God, this is all
right: I'm doing what I want to do. And that was a huge weight off my
shoulders.
- I just wanted to see him [James Bond] make a few mistakes. I want to
make the audience believe that it's all going to go wrong and then when
it goes right it's much more exciting. Every day you pick up an injury
and you're battered and bruised. If you're not physically fit then it's
difficult to get through. I'm a Bond fan. If I go and see a Bond movie
there are certain things I think should be in it. And they're there.
We've got them in spades. Nobody knows more than I do how important
this is, and it's my job to get it right.
- [on the backlash from Bond fans] I didn't expect this backlash. You take
it in, you can't help it. I've been trying to give 110% since the
beginning, but after all the fuss, maybe I started giving 115%.
- [interview in Entertainment Weekly magazine] If I went onto the Internet
and started looking at what some people were saying about me - which,
sadly, I have done - it would drive me insane.
- [interview in Entertainment Weekly magazine] They [diehard James Bond
fans] hate me. They don't think I'm right for the role. It's as simple
as that. They're passionate about it, which I understand, but I do wish
they'd reserve judgment.
- I hope it's going to be liberating. I'm not putting any negative spin on
this because to be typecast as James Bond is a very high-class problem
for an actor, and I'm certainly going to try to get as much out of it
as I can. Of course I am always going to think about whether it is
going to limit what I do. I plan for it not to, but if it does, I'll
approach that problem when it comes.
- I wanted to do as much of the action work as I could, so that the
audience can see it's me and it's real. I feel like I became a
sportsman of sorts, and that meant acquiring injuries and carrying on
and bashing through to the next level of pain. Although the stunt team
did fantastic work to make sure that everything was as safe as
possible, if you don't get bruised playing Bond, you're not doing it
properly. I had black eyes, I had cuts, I was bruised, I had muscle
strains, and I took a lot of painkillers. But it was part of the job.
As much as I was hurt, the stuntmen were in much more pain.
- I was affected by it - of course I was. What bothered me was that I was
being criticized before I had done the work. I wasn't going to get into
an argument with these people, so my only response was, 'See the movie
and then you have the right to criticize, but first see what I am
trying to do.' It strengthened my resolve. I was hurt by it, but it
just made me try harder. The pressure was there. I know a lot of people
feel very passionate about the Bond movies, but so do I, so I just got
on with it. What I tried to achieve was just making a movie people will
want to go and see, and I think we have made a great movie. One of the
things I was criticized for was that I looked like a bad guy, but I was
happy with that because I think true good guys have to step into the
dark side to do their job. I wanted people to question Bond's morals
and his judgment.
- Sean Connery set and defined the character. He did something
extraordinary with that role. He was bad, sexy, animalistic and
stylish, and it is because of him I am here today. I wanted Sean
Connery's approval and he sent me messages of support, which meant a
lot to me.
- [interview with David Giannarco, Hello! magazine, 11/27/06, about the
plot for "Bond 21"] What we've done is set in process the idea that
there's an organization out there and Bond is now after them. That's
where we will pick up the next film. There's going to be a real element
of revenge.
- [on-set interview with David Giammarco, The Globe and Mail, 3/27/06] I
got a personal trainer for Casino Royale, which has been
an absolute godsend. I knew I had to be in the best shape I could be,
otherwise I would never survive it. Because at the end of the day,
there isn't any painting-it-in for this movie. These stunts aren't
going to be helped by CGI . . . what you're seeing is the real thing.
And I've got the bruises to prove it!
- [interview with David Giammarco, Hello! magazine, 11/27/06, on on being
approached to take over the James Bond character]
[Pierce Brosnan] and I had a few drinks over it and we discussed
it. And his advice to me was, "Go for it!"--which I think is the best
advice I could've gotten.
- [on preparing for his second James Bond performance] Last time I did a
lot of weights to bulk up. This time I'll do more running. I won't be
as "no-neck". But when this guy takes his shirt off, he should look
like he could kill someone.
- I always wanted to be an actor. I had the arrogance to believe I
couldn't be anything else.
- Method actors suggest that you do sense memory exercises every time you
do a scene. I use every method I can. Whatever works, I'll use.
- Well, competition is so important, even when you're an artist. And if
you deny that there's competition, then you're a liar. That's what
gives you your ambition.
- [on first hearing he had the role of James Bond) When [Bond producer
Barbara Broccoli] rang me to tell me I'd got the part, I was
buying dishwashing tablets in Whole Foods. I promptly dropped them and
went and bought a bottle of vodka!
- [remarking on an injury he sustained on the set of
Quantum of Solace] I lost my fingerprint, so now I can go
out and commit all sorts of crimes.
- [On the delayed sequel to Quantum of Solace] The new Bond
movie is on hold but I am champing at the bit to get going on it as
quickly as possible. I love playing Bond - I don't want to be away from
it for too long.