Daniel Craig

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Daniel Craig in Layer Cake

Daniel Wroughton Craig (born March 2, 1968) is an English actor.

He was born in Chester, the son of a steel erector and an art teacher. He was brought up in Prescot, near Liverpool. He also attended Hilbre High School, West Kirby (near Liverpool) and played rugby at nearby Hoylake Rugby Club. After briefly attending Sixth Form at Calday Grange Grammar School he moved to London when he was 16 to join the National Youth Theatre, later securing a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Craig's film career began with The Power of One in 1992, and he later gained wider recognition in the UK with a co-starring role in the critically-acclaimed BBC2 drama serial Our Friends in the North in 1996. Following a lighthearted introduction to international audiences as Angelina Jolie's rival and sometime love interest in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), he raised his profile in the United States in Sam Mendes' movie Road to Perdition (2002), with Tom Hanks, playing a weaselly murderer who hides behind his mobster father's shadow. Other leading film roles have included Sylvia (2003) with Gwyneth Paltrow and Enduring Love (2004) with Rhys Ifans. In 2005, Craig played a Jewish, South African-born Mossad agent in Steven Spielberg's controversial political thriller, Munich.

On October 9, 2005 the News of the World newspaper revealed that Craig had been having an affair with Sienna Miller, his co-star in Layer Cake (2005). Miller had recently been engaged to Jude Law, who had previously had an affair with his children's nanny in July.

James Bond

As early as February 2005, Craig had been named in the media as a possible contender to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. On April 6, 2005 Craig was reported to have been signed by EON Productions as part of a three-film contract worth £15 million [1], however, this news was later debunked by the BBC [2] who contacted EON for an official report. According to Craig, MGM offered him the role but the Broccoli family never got in touch with him.

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Daniel Craig as James Bond

Finally, on October 14, 2005, EON Productions named Daniel Craig as the sixth actor to portray 007, taking over from Pierce Brosnan. Craig signed a three-film contract, with the first, Casino Royale, expected to be released worldwide on November 17, 2006. The announcement was made at noon in London at HMS President, a Royal Naval Reserve station at St Katharine Docks, on the banks of the River Thames downstream of Tower Bridge.

When announced, because Daniel Craig has blond hair instead of Bond's typical black hair, he was consequently dubbed in the media as "James Blond." Roger Moore also sported a lighter sandy coloured hair throughout many of his films, however, he is not considered blond.

Born the year after the release of You Only Live Twice and before the release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Craig is the first James Bond actor to be born after the start of the film series, and the first to be born after Ian Fleming's death in 1964.

The casting of Craig as Bond has been controversial among some fans of the film series, resulting in one group creating a website, craignotbond.com, advocating a boycott of the film unless EON Productions reconsiders their casting, even though production of Casino Royale had already begun. However, the general consensus among fans is a more positive attitude towards Daniel Craig as Bond and in defense of Craig a number of websites to counter Craignotbond.com have been created, such as craigisbond.net and givecraigachance.com. Additionally, many actors and actresses who have either worked with Craig or have been featured in previous Bond films have argued that Craig is a good choice as Bond. This list includes four of the past Bond actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. Miss Moneypenny, Samantha Bond, and the villain Scaramanga, Christopher Lee, have also backed the new Bond. Judi Dench has also voiced her support for Craig in this role, and criticized the negative reaction: "I hate how people have been attacking Daniel Craig. It's despicable and it disgusts me. I have filmed with him in Prague and the Bahamas and he is a fine actor. He brings something new and edgy to the role. His critics will be proved wrong."

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2006	Casino Royale	James Bond	Opened 11/17/06
2006	The Visiting	Ben	Post-production
2006	Infamous	Perry Smith
2005	Munich	Steve	In theatres
2005	Archangel	Fluke Kelso	Television drama
2005	Fateless	American Soldier	In theatres
2005	The Jacket	Rudy Mackenzie
2004	Layer Cake	XXXX
2004	Enduring Love	Joe
2003	Sylvia	Ted Hughes
2003	The Mother	Darren
2002	Ten Minutes Older: The Cello	Cecil
2002	Road to Perdition	Connor Rooney
2001	Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	Alex West
2000	Some Voices	Ray
2000	I Dreamed of Africa	Declan Fielding
1998	Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon	George Dyer
1998	Elizabeth	John Ballard
1997	Obsession	John McHale
1996	Our Friends in the North	George "Geordie" Peacock	Television drama
1995	A Kid in King Arthur's Court	Master Kane
1992	The Power of One	Sgt. Botha

External links

• Daniel Craig Info
• Fans threaten to boycott 007 film
• Bond star ignores fans' criticism