Daniel Craig
☼ Born on 2 December 1968, in Chester, Cheshire, England, UK
Biography
One of the British theatre's most famous faces, Daniel Craig, who waited tables as a struggling teenage actor with the National Youth Theatre, has gone on to star as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).
He was born Daniel Wroughton Craig on March 2, 1968, at 41 Liverpool Road, Chester, Cheshire, England. His father, Timothy John Wroughton Craig, was a merchant seaman turned steel erector, and then became landlord of the "Ring O'Bells" pub in Frodsham, Cheshire. His mother, Carol Olivia (Williams), was an art teacher. Craig has English, as well as Irish, Scottish and Welsh, ancestry. His parents split up in 1972, and young Daniel 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 six, 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's Live and Let Die (1973); 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 age 14, Craig played roles in "Oliver", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Cinderella" at Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Wirr
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al. He left Hilbre High School at age 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. 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, then later Damian Lewis and Joseph Fiennes, among others. He graduated in 1991, after a three-year course under the tutelage of Colin McCormack, the actor from the Royal Shakespeare Company. From 1992-1994, he was married to Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, their daughter, named Ella Craig (born 1992).
Craig made his film debut in The Power of One (1992). His film career continued on television, notably the BBC2 serial Our Friends in the North (1996). He shot to international fame after playing supporting roles in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Road to Perdition (2002). He was nominated for his performances in the leading role in Layer Cake (2004), and received other awards and nominations. Craig was named as the sixth actor to portray James Bond, in October 2005, weeks after he finished his work in Munich (2005), where he co-starred with Eric Bana 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 blond 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 in 1964. Four of the past Bond actors: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan have indicated that Craig is a good choice as Bond.
He was appointed Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) by Queen Elizabeth II at the 2022 Queen's New Years Honours for his services to Film and Theatre.
In the role of actor
Queer (13/12/2024)
The novel by William S. Burroughs is adapted for the big screen with Queer. As a result of his drug addictions, writer William Lee (William Lee) has been living as an exile in 1950s Mexico City, frequenting the city’s gay bars and sharing tales of homosexual misadventures with his friend Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman). Lee […]
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – TIFF 2022 (21/09/2022)
Benoit Blanc is back for a new case in Greece in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) breaks out of his COVD-19 pandemic boredom when he receives an invitation to join governor Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), tech executive Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), fashion designer Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson) and her […]
No Time to Die (29/09/2021)
A retired James Bond is pulled back into action by a new global threat in No Time to Die. James Bond (Daniel Craig) has left MI6 for a life in Italy with Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), though a sudden attack by the criminal organization SPECTRE, somehow run from behind bars by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), […]
Knives Out (27/11/2019)
A famed private investigator looks into the mysterious death of a mystery writer in Knives Out. The morning after his 85th birthday, famed mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead of an apparent suicide. Following the funeral, police Lieutenant Elliott (LaKeith Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Noah Segan) are joined by private investigator Benoit […]
Glass (17/01/2019)
M. Night Shyamalan returns to the world of Unbreakable two decades later in Glass. For the past 19 years, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) has been working as a vigilante superhero the media has nicknamed “The Overseer.” With the help of his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), David has been tracking down Kevin Wendell Crumb (James […]
The Girl in the Spider’s Web (14/11/2018)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo returns in The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) is hired by former NSA employee Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) to steal a program called Firefall, which can access the world’s nuclear missiles. Soon after completing the heist, Lisbeth’s apartment is ambushed by a group of men who […]
Logan Lucky (22/08/2017)
Two brothers plan a robbery during a NASCAR race in Logan Lucky. Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is a down on his luck man, who was fired from his mining job and is constantly at odds with his ex-wife Bobbie Jo Chapman (Katie Holmes), who has custody of their daughter Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie). With the help of his […]
Spectre (07/11/2015)
Agent 007 faces his greatest adversary in Spectre. Going against orders from MI6, James Bond (Daniel Craig) tracks down a criminal organization, whose members wear rings with the insignia of an octopus. Bond finds that this organization, known as SPECTRE, is lead by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), a presumed dead man from Bond’s past. Bond tracks […]
Skyfall (10/11/2012)
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the James Bond franchise and with it comes the new film Skyfall. It was a decade ago when the Bond series fell victim to excess, including invisible cars and a heavy use CGI stunts. This resulted in the series to strip back and reboot the Bond franchise as […]
The Adventures of Tintin (28/12/2011)
Making a film version of The Adventures of Tintin was a bit of risky move for Steven Spielberg, since the popular Belgian comics are next to unknown in the United States. The opposite can be said here in Canada, where there was a popular animated series based on the books that aired in the 1990s. I have fond […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) (24/12/2011)
There was a question I asked myself many times while watching David Fincher’s English-language adaptation of the novel by Stieg Larsson: If I didn’t previously see (and enjoy) the original Swedish adaptation, would I have liked this film better? The answer I came up with was: probably not. I thought that Fincher’s version of the story […]
Cowboys & Aliens (31/07/2011)
This is one of those films where everything that you need to know about it is in the title. The film is pretty much done as a straight-forward western, except for the fact that the villains just happen to be alien invaders. I think it’s this western/sci-fi genre-bending that makes the film so fun to […]
Quantum of Solace (16/11/2008)
I guess it can agreed that the James Bond series would seem a little dated with newer action-packed spy films like the Jason Bourne films showing up. However, I never expected the producers to try and combine the two. There are many times throughout the film that seems to borrow from the Bourne films (including […]
The Golden Compass (09/12/2007)
6 years ago saw the successful releases (only one month apart) of the big screen adaptations of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Since then, it seems that every fantasy novel is being adapted. Of these adaptations, I believe The Golden Compass is the highest profile release since The Lion, The Witch, and The […]