“I go through life thinking it's all going to end tomorrow.”
BIRTH NAME: Daniel Wroughton Craig
HEIGHT: 5' 10" (1.78m)
Son of art teacher, Carol Olivia and Timothy John Wroughton Craig, a midshipman in the Merchant Navy and steel erector. His father later became the landlord of two Chesire pubs: “Ring O’ Bells” in Frodsham and “Boot Inn” in Tarporley. Daniel Craig has an older sister, Lea, born in 1965. He is French and Welsh lineage with French Huguenot minister Daniel Chamier and Sir William Burnaby, 1st Baronet among his ancestors.
Daniel’s parents divorced in 1972 and he and his sister moved to the Wirral Peninsula with their mother and attended primary school in Hoylake and Frodsham. Daniel attended Hilbre High School in West Kirby. At age 16, he attended Calday Grange Grammar School as a “sixth form” student. Daniel played rugby for Hoylake RFC.
Daniel began acting in school at the age of six, his debut being the Frodsham Primary School production of Oliver! He became serious about acting by attending Everyman Theatre in Liverpool with his mother. At the age of 14 in 1982, he played roles in Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella at Hilbre High School. In 1984, Daniel was accepted into the National Youth Theatre and moved to London, where he worked part-time in restaurants to finance his education. His parents attended his stage debut as Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida. Daniel performed with the National Youth Theatre on tours to Valencia and Moscow under director Edward Wilson. He entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1988 and graduated in 1991. Daniel was under the tutelage of Colin McCormack, an actor from Royal Shakespeare Company.
1992 – Played an Afrikaner in The Power of One. Played minor roles in miniseries: Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, Covington Cross and Boon.
1993 – Angels in America (Royal National Theatre production). Craig was featured in two episodes of American television shows – Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. British shows – Heartbeat, Between the Lines, Drop the Dead Donkey, and Sharpe's Eagle.
1994 – Appeared in The Rover and Les Grandes Horizontales, where he met his second wife, Rachel Weisz.
1995 – Disney film, A Kid in King Arthur's Court did not fare well at the box office.
1996 – Starred in BBC drama Our Friends in the North. He acted with Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee, and Mark Strong. It is considered Daniel's breakthrough role. Daniel guest-starred in an episode of the HBO horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt and was also featured in the BBC television film Saint-Ex.
1997 – Daniel was lead performance in Obsession as well as Hurlyburly, a stage play performed in the West End at the Old Vic.
1998 – Appeared in Love and Rage. BBC TV film Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon.
1999 – Starred in television drama Shockers: The Visitor and The Trench.
2000 – Cast in the drama Some Voices and dark comedy Hotel Splendide as well as I Dreamed of Africa starring Kim Basinger.
2001 – Daniel played the love interest of Angela Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Craig appeared in the four-part drama Sword of Honour based upon novels of the same name.
2002 – Appeared in anthology film Ten Minutes Older: The Cello, directed by Michael Radford. Craig took part in the celebrated Sam Mendes film Road to Perdition along with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, playing an Irish mobster, son of the boss. Craig appeared in Copenhagen as German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a BBC TV drama. Craig appeared on stage opposite Michael Gambon in A Number from September to November at the Royal Court Theatre. Daniel received a London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor nomination.
2003 – Craig stars as Ted Hughes with Gwyneth Paltrow in biographical film Sylvia. Craig also appeared in The Mother who has an affair with a much older woman played by Anne Reid. Then it was Layer Cake, a crime thriller directed by Matthew Vaughn.
2004 – Craig starred with Rhys Ifans in Enduring Love.
2005 – Craig appeared in three theatrical films, all were supporting roles. The first release was The Jacket with Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley. He made a brief appearance in the Hungarian film Fateless as a U.S. Army Sergeant who befriends a concentration camp survivor. And finally for this year, Craig appears in Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg as a South African. In this year, 2005, Craig was contacted by Eon Productions to portray James Bond. Barbara Broccoli “wooed” him for some time, as Daniel was reluctant. He was aware of the challenge of portraying Bond in the franchise and his colleagues and friends advised him: “There is life after Bond”. His goal, that he achieved, brought a more “emotional depth” to the famous character created by Ian Fleming. Craig was to be the first actor to portray James Bond that was born after the Bond series started and after the death of Ian Fleming. At first there were internet campaigns against Craig portraying the iconic figure and threatened to boycott the film. But Daniel Craig's acting skills won out. Five previous actors who portrayed Bond supported him: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton and stated the casting was a good decision. After seeing Craig's performance in 2008, Sean Connery described him as “fantastic, marvelous in the part.”
2006 – Craig appears in his first role as James Bond, Casino Royale, premiering on November 14th, 2006, grossing $594,239,066 worldwide – highest-grossing Bond film until the release of Skyfall. After the release of the film, he earned critical acclaim. After completing Casino Royale, Craig performed in Infamous and Renaissance. He was also invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
2007 – Craig starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the Sci-Fi horror film The Invasion. He portrayed Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass, an adaptation to novel by Philip Pullman. Craig made a cameo appearance in March 2007 in a sketch for The Catherine Tate Show.
2008 – Craig makes his second Bond film Quantum of Solace as well as providing the voice of its video game. He also starred in Flashbacks of a Fool with Emilia Fox. While the film didn't receive well, Craig's performance was praised. And finally for 2008, Craig played lead role in the war film Defiance.
2009 – Craig co-starred with Hugh Jackman in A Steady Rain on Broadway, playing at the Schoenfeld Theatre. Craig appears as a crusading journalist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
2010 – Craig took a leading role in Dream House, directed by Jim Sheridan and co-starring Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts and Marton Csokas. The Craig co-starred with Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde in Cowboys & Aliens, based upon a novel by Mitchell Rosenberg. Skyfall failed to be released this year because of financial troubles, it would later be released in 2012.
2011 - Craig provided his voice for The Adventures of Tintin, a Steven Spielberg animated film.
2012 – Craig appears as James Bond in the short film Happy and Glorious, where he escorts Queen Elizabeth II to the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.
2013 – Daniel and his wife Rachel starred in a Broadway play Betrayal that ran until 2014. It grossed $17.5 million.
2014 – Craig begins filming Spectre in December of this year, his fourth Bond film. His first four films grossed $3.5 billion globally, after adjusting for inflation. Spectre was released in October of 2015.
2015 – An unaccredited cameo appearance as a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
2016 – Throughout this year, Craig appears Off-Broadway in New York in the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello. Diane Snyder of The Daily Telegraph praised his performance as “chilling” as Lago.
2017 – Craig co-starred in the comedy Logan Lucky. Craig also co-starred with Halle Berry in Kings.
2019 – Craig starred in Knives Out, a dark comedy murder-mystery, as a detective (Benoit Blanc) investigating the sudden death of a family patriarch. His performance was superb. It premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival with critical acclaim.
2020 – Craig signed on to this fifth and last Bond film No Time to Die, directed by Danny Boyle, released in November of 2019, but was delayed until 2021 because Boyle left the project. The film ended up being directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, released in cinemas in September of 2021 in UK and October of 2021 in US. It was delayed several times because of COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 – No Time to Die is finally released delayed by production problems and the pandemic.
2022 – Craig starred in Macbeth opposite Ruth Negga on Broadway.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Craig and British Prime Minister Tony Blair helped raise charity funds through Comic Relief, raising more than $90 million (2007). Craig is also involved in providing funds for low-income students to receive education in New York. In 2011, he collaborated with Dame Judi Dench (who portrayed “M” in Bond films) in a short film to raise funds for International Women's Day. In 2012, Craig worked with Orbis International in Mongolia to raise support of the Orbis medical team and their Flying Eye Hospital.
In 2015, the United Nations appointed Daniel Craig to be the first global advocate for the elimination of mines and explosive hazards. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon told Craig: “You have been given a licence to kill, I'm now giving you a licence to save.”
In 2019, Craig appeared in a video with Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres to launch the UNMAS Safe Ground campaign to turn minefields into playing fields.
In 2012, Craig expressed his dislike and distrust for politics and politicians in general. Despite his previous engagements in charity functions with Tony Blair, Craig has given negative remarks towards the Prime Minister when he was in office.
Craig supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 in US presidential elections, despite his statement: “If you involve yourself with politicians, you immediately are aligning yourself with a political party.”
In 1992, Daniel married Fiona Loudon and had a daughter named Ella before their divorce in 1994. He later began a relationship with German actress Heike Makatsch that lasted seven years, ending in 2004.
Craig and actress Rachel Weisz had been working together since 1994, They began dating in December of 2010 and were married in New York City on June 22nd, 2011. It was a private ceremony with only four guests, including Craig's daughter and Weisz's son. Their first child, a daughter, together was born on September 1st, 2018.
In January of 2018, Craig purchased a home in Brooklyn, New York for $6 million.
Craig is an avid fan of Liverpool F.C. And also a fan of rugby having traveled to Australia in 2013 to watch a British and Irish Lions tour.
In 2019, Craig announced he had American citizenship.
In 2022, Craig was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to film and theatre. It was the same honor held by Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novel series.
While performing in Macbeth on Broadway, Craig contracted COVID-19 and was forced to cancel performances.
Craig is a huge fan of Robert Altman films.
Before making Casino Royale in 2006, his first Bond film, Craig quit smoking. When he quit smoking he gained twenty pounds of muscle from proper exercise. He intended to be fit for the role as James Bond, 007.
Before cast in the film The Golden Compass (2007), Craig was a huge fan of the author Philip Pullman.
Craig and Weisz reside in London and New York City.
Craig is a fan of the British rock band Radiohead.
Craig's father attended the same school as John Lennon.
Once Craig got into a fist fight after a man pinched his girlfriend's buttock.
After filming Casino Royale (2006) and before production of Quantum of Solace (2008), Craig has his body insured for $9.5 million.
In real life, despite profusely using firearms in Bond films, Craig has a dislike for firearms in real life.
Craig played an important part of casting leading Bond girls since Casino Royale in 2006. None of the Bond girls were selected without his approval.
The Latin expression “tempus fugit” (“time flies”) was used in two Craig films: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Spectre (2015).
In 2021, Daniel Craig was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard.
As of 2020, Craig has appeared in two films nominated for Best Picture.
Craig was the first Bond actor not to have Desmond Llewelyn as gadget master “Q”, Llewelyn died in a road accident in 1999.
At 5' 10”, Craig is the shortest actor to portray James Bond.
Craig does not participate in social media.
Despite negative press as Pierce Brosnan's successor as James Bond, his performance in Casino Royale (2006) and subsequent five Bond films proved them wrong. For his first performance in Casino Royale, he quit smoking and went on an athletic program that gained him 20 pounds of muscle. He also prepared himself mentally and decided to portray a more personal role with emotion. He kept the dry satirical humor of the previous Bond characters.
The following video is a collection of the Daniel Craig Bond film trailers, including the last one entitled No Time to Die.
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