Pierce Brosnan

After leaving school at age 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration and went on to attend the Drama Centre in London for three years. Following a stage acting career, he rose to popularity in the television series Remington Steele (1982–1987). After the conclusion of the series, Brosnan appeared in films such as the Cold War spy film The Fourth Protocol (1987) and the comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). After achieving worldwide fame for his role as James Bond, Brosnan took the lead in other major films including the epic disaster adventure film Dante's Peak (1997) and the remake of the heist film The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). Since leaving the role of Bond, he has starred in films such as the political thriller The Ghost Writer (2010), the action fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), the action spy thriller The November Man (2014), the comedy musical Mamma Mia! (2008), its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). In 2022, Brosnan played Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate in the DC Extended Universe film Black Adam.


Brosnan has received two Golden Globe Award nominations, for the miniseries Nancy Astor (1982) and for the dark comedy film The Matador (2005). In 1996, he and the American film producer Beau St. Clair founded the Los Angeles–based production company Irish DreamTime.^[2] He is also known for his charitable work and environmental activism. In 1997, Brosnan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.^[3] In 2020, he was listed at No. 15 on The Irish Times' list of the greatest Irish film actors.^[4]

Early life[edit]

Brosnan was born on 16 May 1953^[5] in Drogheda, County Louth,^[5] the only child of May (née Smith) and Thomas Brosnan, a carpenter. He has the same name as his grandfather, Pierce Brosnan, whose first name was in honour of his mother Margaret Pierce.^[6] For 12 years, he lived in Navan, County Meath, and said in 1999 that he considers it to be his hometown.^[7] His father abandoned the family when Brosnan was an infant. When he was four years old, his mother moved to London to work as a nurse. From then on, he was largely brought up by his maternal grandparents, Philip and Kathleen Smith. After their deaths, he lived with an aunt and then an uncle, but was subsequently sent to live in a boarding house run by a woman named Eileen. He later said, "Childhood was fairly solitary. I never knew my father. He left when I was an infant. [...] To be Irish Catholic in the 1950s, and have a marriage which was not there, a father who was not there [...] the mother, the wife suffered greatly. My mother was very courageous. She took the bold steps to go away and be a nurse in England. Basically wanting a better life for her and myself. My mother came home once a year, twice a year."^[8]


Brosnan was brought up in a Catholic family,^[9][10][11] and educated in a local school run by the De La Salle Brothers while serving as an altar boy.^[11] He left Ireland on 12 August 1964 and went to Scotland to be reunited with his mother and her new husband, William Carmichael, at their home in Longniddry.^[12][13] Carmichael took Brosnan to see a James Bond film for the first time (Goldfinger) at the age of 11.^[14] They later moved back to London, where Brosnan was educated at Elliott School in Putney, now known as Ark Putney Academy.^[8][15] When discussing his transition from Ireland to England, he said, "When you go to a very large city, a metropolis like London, as an Irish boy of 10, life suddenly moves pretty fast. [...] And you're Irish. And they make you feel it; the British have a wonderful way of doing that, and I had a certain deep sense of being an outsider."^[8] His nickname at school was simply "Irish".^[16]


After leaving school at 16, Brosnan decided to be a painter and began training in commercial illustration at Saint Martin's School of Art in London.^[17][18] While attending a rehearsal for a workshop at the Ovalhouse, he saw a fire eater teaching people how to eat fire and decided to join in.^[19] He trained for three years as an actor at the Drama Centre London.^[20] Describing the feeling of becoming an actor and the influence it had on his life, he said, "When I found acting, or when acting found me, it was a liberation. It was a stepping stone into another life, away from a life that I had, and acting was something I was good at, something which was appreciated. That was a great satisfaction in my life."^[8]