Daniel Craig

Craig with producer Michael G. Wilson in June 2006, filming Casino Royale

Craig appeared in his first screen role in 1992, playing an Afrikaner in The Power of One.[9] Having played minor roles in the miniseries Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and the shows Covington Cross and Boon, he appeared in November 1993 as Joe in the Royal National Theatre's production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.[10][11][12][13] Also in 1993, Craig was featured in two episodes of the American television shows Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,[14][15][16] and British shows Heartbeat, Between the Lines, Drop the Dead Donkey and Sharpe's Eagle.[17][18][19][20] In 1994, Craig appeared in The Rover, a filmed stage production and Les Grandes Horizontales, a stage production at the National Theatre Studio, where he first met Rachel Weisz, who would become his second wife.[21][22][23] Craig was featured in the poorly received Disney film A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995).[24][25] In 1996, Craig starred in the BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North as the troubled George 'Geordie' Peacock. Appearing alongside Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee and Mark Strong, Craig's part in the series is considered his breakthrough role.[26][27]

In the same year, Craig guest-starred in an episode of the HBO horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt and was featured in the BBC television film Saint-Ex.[28][29] Craig gave a lead performance in the Franco-German drama Obsession in 1997, about a love triangle between Craig's character and a couple.[30] The same year, he played a leading role in Hurlyburly, a play performed in the West End at the Old Vic.[31]

Craig appeared in three films in 1998: the independent drama Love and Rage,[32] the biographical drama Elizabeth, in which he played Jesuit priest John Ballard, who was executed for being involved in an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England in the Babington Plot,[22][33] and the BBC television film Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), in which Craig played small-time thief George Dyer who becomes the lover and muse of painter Francis Bacon, who was portrayed by Derek Jacobi.[34] The following year, Craig starred in a television drama called Shockers: The Visitor and as Sergeant Telford Winter in the independent war film The Trench, which takes place in the confines of the trenches in the First World War during the 48 hours leading up to the Battle of the Somme.[35][36]

Craig played a schizophrenic man who falls in love with a woman (played by Kelly Macdonald) after being discharged from psychiatric hospital in the drama Some Voices (2000).[37][38] Also in 2000, Craig co-starred alongside Toni Collette in the dark comedy Hotel Splendide and was featured in I Dreamed of Africa, based on the life of Kuki Gallmann (played by Kim Basinger).[39][40] Craig played the love interest of Angelina Jolie's character Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), based on the video game series Tomb Raider.[41] He later admitted to having taken on the role in the poorly-reviewed yet commercially successful film only for the paycheque.[42] In 2001, Craig also starred in the four-part Channel 4 drama Sword of Honour, based on the trilogy of novels of the same.[43] Craig appeared in the anthology film Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002), starring in the segment "Addicted to the Stars", directed by Michael Radford.[44][45]

His second release of 2002 was Sam Mendes' crime film Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, in which he played Irish mobster Connor Rooney, the son of the crime organisation's boss.[46][47] Craig then portrayed German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in the BBC television drama Copenhagen (2002), which depicts Heisenberg's involvement in the German nuclear weapon project during World War II.[48][49] On stage, Craig starred opposite Michael Gambon in the original production of Caryl Churchill's play A Number from September to November 2002 at the Royal Court Theatre.[50][51] Craig received a London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor nomination for his role as a man who is cloned twice by his father.[52] The next year, he starred as poet Ted Hughes opposite Gwyneth Paltrow as Sylvia Plath in the biographical film Sylvia (2003), which depicts the romance between the two poets.[53] In the same year, he appeared in The Mother as a man who engages in an affair with the much older mother (played by Anne Reid) of his lover and best friend.[54][55]

The crime thriller Layer Cake, directed by Matthew Vaughn, starred Craig as an unnamed London-based cocaine supplier known only as "XXXX" in the film's credits.[56] Kevin Crust, writing for the Los Angeles Times, praised Craig's "stunningly suave performance", while Roger Ebert thought he was "fascinating" in the film.[57][58] Craig next starred as a man who becomes dangerously close with a stranger (played by Rhys Ifans) after witnessing a deadly accident together in Enduring Love (2004).[59][60]

Craig appeared in three theatrical films in 2005, all of which were supporting roles. His first release of the year, was the thriller The Jacket starring Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley.[61][62] He then made a brief appearance in the Hungarian film Fateless as a United States Army Sergeant who takes a liking to a teenage boy who survives life in concentration camps.[63][64] Craig's third and final role of the year was in Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, as a South African driver who is a part of a covert Israeli government assassination mission against eleven Palestinians allegedly involved in the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.[65][66] Also in 2005, Craig starred in the BBC television film Archangel – based on Robert Harris' novel – as an English academic who stumbles upon a notebook believed to have belonged to Joseph Stalin.[67][68]

Craig at the Quantum of Solace film premiere in New York in November 2008

In 2005, Craig was contacted by Eon Productions to portray James Bond. Initially, he was unsure about the role and was resistant to the producers' overtures. "There was a period of trying to woo him" longtime Bond co-producer Barbara Broccoli later commented in 2012.[69] During this period, he sought advice from colleagues and friends, of whom "most of us said to him...'there is life after Bond'.".[70] He stated he "was aware of the challenges" of the Bond franchise, which he considered "a big machine that makes a lot of money". He aimed at bringing more "emotional depth" to the character.[71] Born in 1968, Craig is the first actor to portray James Bond to have been born after the Bond series started and after the death of Ian Fleming, the novels' writer.

Craig's casting as Bond caused some controversy due to his physical appearance. Some fans considered the blond-haired, 5-foot-10-inch (1.78-metre) tall Craig to not fit the image of the taller, dark-haired Bond portrayed by the previous actors.[72] Throughout the entire production period, internet campaigns expressed their dissatisfaction and threatened to boycott the film in protest.[73] 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 – Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton – called his casting a good decision.[74][75] Connery notably shared his thoughts on Craig's casting as Bond in 2008, describing him as "fantastic, marvelous in the part". The other actor to have previously played Bond, George Lazenby, has since voiced his approval of Craig also.[76] Clive Owen, who had been linked to the role, also spoke in defence of Craig.[77]

The first film, Casino Royale, premiered on 14 November 2006, and grossed US$594,239,066 worldwide, which made it the highest-grossing Bond film until the release of Skyfall.[78] After the film was released, Craig's performance garnered critical acclaim.[79][80] Craig lent his voice and likeness as James Bond for both the Wii game GoldenEye 007, an enhanced remake of the 1997 game for the Nintendo 64, and James Bond 007: Blood Stone.[81] In addition to Casino Royale, Craig also appeared in two more films in 2006: the drama Infamous as mass murderer Perry Edward Smith and as the voice of the lead character in the English-language version of the French animated film Renaissance.[82][83][84] In 2006, Craig was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[85]

Craig starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the science fiction horror film The Invasion in 2007, the fourth film adaptation of the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, which was met with a negative reception.[86] He portrayed Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass, the 2007 film adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel.[87][88] In 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 programme.[89] In 2008, in addition to Quantum of Solace and its accompanying video game, Craig starred in the drama Flashbacks of a Fool alongside Emilia Fox, as a washed-up Hollywood actor who reflects on his life; although the film was received negatively, Craig's performance was praised.[90][91] In his final release of 2008, the war film Defiance, Craig starred as Tuvia Bielski, the leader of the Bielski partisans, fighting in the forests of Belarus during World War II, saving 1,200 people.[92]

Wax statue of Craig as James Bond at Madame Tussauds in London

He co-starred with Hugh Jackman in a limited engagement of the drama A Steady Rain, on Broadway, which played in autumn 2009 at the Schoenfeld Theatre, for which he gained positive reviews.[93][94] In August 2010, Craig starred as crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist in David Fincher's 2011 adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[95][96] The next year, he took up a leading role in Dream House, a psychological thriller directed by Jim Sheridan and co-starring Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts and Marton Csokas.[97] It garnered mostly negative reviews and low box office results. Craig then co-starred with Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde in Cowboys & Aliens, an American science fiction Western film, based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's 2006 graphic novel of the same name.[98][99] The same year, Craig provided his voice to Steven Spielberg's animated film The Adventures of Tintin in 2011, playing the villainous pirate Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine and his ancestor Red Rackham in a dual role.[100][101]

The planned 19 April 2010 release of Craig's third Bond film was delayed, because of financial troubles; the film, titled Skyfall, was eventually released on 23 October 2012.[102][103][104] The same year, he appeared as James Bond in the short film Happy and Glorious, in which he escorted Queen Elizabeth II to the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.[105][106] He and his wife Weisz starred in a Broadway play titled Betrayal, which ran from October 2013 to January 2014.[107][108] Despite mixed reviews, it grossed $17.5 million, becoming the second highest earning Broadway play of 2013.[109] Craig's fourth Bond film, Spectre, began filming in December 2014 and was released on 26 October 2015. His first four Bond films have grossed $3.5 billion globally, after adjusting for inflation.[110]

Prior to the inaugural Invictus Games held in London in September 2014, Craig along with other entertainers and athletes read the poem "Invictus" in a promotional video.[111] He made an uncredited cameo appearance as a stormtrooper in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[112][113] Craig appeared in a modern production of William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello at the Off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop throughout late 2016 and early 2017. The production starred David Oyelowo as the titular character and Craig as the main antagonist, Iago.[114] Diane Snyder of The Daily Telegraph praised his "chilling" portrayal of Iago in the play.[114] In 2017, Craig co-starred in Steven Soderbergh's comedy Logan Lucky, about two brothers who pull off a heist during a NASCAR race.[115][116] Craig starred alongside Halle Berry in the drama Kings set during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The film premiered in September 2017 and was distributed by the Orchard the following year; it was harshly reviewed by many film critics.[117]

In 2019, Craig starred in Rian Johnson's black comedy murder-mystery Knives Out as Benoit Blanc, a detective investigating the sudden death of a family patriarch.[118] It premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim, and was theatrically released that November.[119][120][121] In 2020, it was announced the Craig had signed on to reprise the character in an upcoming sequel.[122] His fifth Bond film No Time to Die was to be directed by Danny Boyle and released in November 2019, but it was delayed after Boyle left the project.[123] It was ultimately directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and was released in cinemas from 30 September 2021 in the UK and in the US on 8 October 2021 having been delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[124][125]

In appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Graham Norton Show, Craig said that No Time to Die would be his last James Bond film.[126] Two days before the film's release in the US, Craig was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which is located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard (a reference to Bond's code number "007"), and next to the star of fellow Bond actor Roger Moore.[127]

In 2022, Craig starred in a contemporary revival of Macbeth opposite Ruth Negga on Broadway. The production was widely panned. Variety described his performance writing "Craig has some strong moments but does not capture the transformation of Macbeth into a power-hungry tyrant."[128]