Yahoo Movies 16 actors who were almost James Bond
When it comes to casting, no other role in Hollywood comes close to generating as much discussion, debate and tabloid speculation as the part of James Bond.
Idris Elba's name was recently thrown back into the mix - off the back of a fairly spurious story, but it was enough to generate days of reportage and excited online chatter.
Across 56 years, only six actors have played 007 in the official film series, but many more have been considered for the coveted part who never got to strap on the Walther PPK.
Here's just 16 of the other fellas – some of the most notable big names who were very nearly Bond.
1. Henry Cavill
Back in 2005, the actor who came closest to rivalling Daniel Craig was Cavill.
He was actually the preferred choice of Casino Royale director Martin Campbell, but the feeling of producers was that, even though the film was a reboot featuring a rookie 007, Cavill - then in his early 20s - was just too young to play Bond.
"Henry Cavill was very good and went right down to the wire," said Casino Royale co-writer Neil Purvis. He of course went on to play Superman and play another Ian Fleming creation, Napoleon Solo, in 2015's The Man from UNCLE.
2. Dominic West
West also went up for Bond in 2005, but told the Daily Mail that he "wasn't too bothered" about bagging the role.
"Until Daniel Craig got that part, the whole Bond franchise was pretty cheesy - the kind of thing I have no interest in at all," he said.
The star of The Wire and The Wire claims to have opted for a "nonchalant look" when going up for 007. "I went to my audition in an old pair of jeans and a tatty T-shirt," he said.
Not exactly Savile Row.
3. Hugh Jackman
The X-Men and Greatest Showman star told Australian television series The Program that he was approached about Bond in the early 2000s.
"At the time, I was just about to do X-Men 2, and I was like, 'Ah, I don't think it's the right time,' –I'd seriously consider it [now]," he said of playing 007.
Interestingly, Jackman's timeframe has him being approached around 2002, before the release of Pierce Brosnan's final outing Die Another Day. Brosnan would not officially depart the franchise until 2004, but were producers already eyeing up potential replacements?
4. Liam Neeson
The future Taken star has said he was "heavily courted" for 1995's Goldeneye, but turned down the chance to audition – at the behest, he claims, of his wife Natasha Richardson.
"Women, foreign countries...it's understandable," Neeson told Men's Journal.
Besides, the actor himself had already decided that wasn't interested in doing action movies. Oh, the irony.
5. Sean Bean
Though Bean has never spoken publicly about being up for Bond, it's believed he tested for 1987's The Living Daylights, which eventually starred Timothy Dalton.
He was also considered for Goldeneye – though he lost out again, this time to Brosnan, he instead landed the part of the Bond-alike villain: Alec Trevelyan, agent 006.
6. Ralph Fiennes
Martin Campbell, also director on Goldeneye, met with Fiennes when he was on the hunt for a new 007 for the '90s.
"There was a conversation that was great, and a meeting with [Bond producer] Cubby Broccoli that was terrific," Fiennes confirmed to The Telegraph. "[But] I don't think I felt ready to commit and I think they were looking at Pierce."
Almost 20 years later, Fiennes would be cast as Mallory - now the new M - in 2012's Skyfall and reprised the role in 2015's Spectre.
7. Mel Gibson
Gibson has confirmed that, post-Mad Max but pre-Lethal Weapon, he was sought out by producers EON.
But while, in a 2017 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, he claimed to have turned down the part, the book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Filmsby Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury claims that Gibson actually asked for too much money.
His representatives apparently sought "a two picture deal for $10m" in 1987, "but this was a bit too rich for the EON pocket".
8. Clint Eastwood
Having secured a returning Sean Connery's services for 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, the hunt was on for a new Bond for 1973's Live and Let Die, with United Artists pressuring EON to cast a big-name US star as the British secret agent.
Eastwood was approached, "but to me, well, that was somebody else's gig," he told the Los Angeles Times. "That's Sean [Connery]'s deal. It didn't feel right for me to be doing it."
Dirty James? Yeah, we can't quite see it either.
9. Clive Owen
Tipped as a potential 007 ever since donning a tux for 1999 crime flick Croupier, Owen was for a long time a bookies' favourite to replace Pierce Brosnan.
An article in Variety from 2005 alleged that Owen was approached but turned the part down becaue he was refused "gross profit points" on his contract - meaning he'd receive a percentage of the profits from each new Bond film.
Owen, though, later claimed he was never offered the role, telling the Sunday Express that "Bond was the best thing that never happened to me."
Perhaps we'll never know the truth.
10. Rupert Friend
Friend - later cast as spy Peter Quinn in Homeland - was one of the select few who actually embarked on a lavish screentest with Martin Campbell for Casino Royale, a day-long affairwhich saw actors shoot a sequence as Bond on a special set.
(Others reportedly included ER's Goran Visnjic and Antony Starr, later the lead in Cinemax series Banshee.)
He lost out, of course, to Daniel Craig, though casting director Debbie McWilliams later told BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme that Friend turned down the part.
11. Sam Neill
A pre-Jurassic Park Neill, then best known for the lead role in television series Reilly, Ace of Spies, tried out for Bond in 1986 after Roger Moore's departure.
He allegedly impressed all the top brass, except for 007 movie supremo Cubby Broccoli. Not that it mattered: Neill later insisted that he'd been pushed into the audition by his agent and wouldn't have accepted the Bond role even if it'd been offered.
In a 2015 interview with New Zealand's KIIS FM, he said, "I wouldn't want to be James Bond – that would be a terrible poison chalice. I went along and auditioned, but that was under great sufferance and I wouldn't have done it anyway."
12. Adam West
A hot property after success of the '60s Batman TV series, the late West told Digital Spy in 2014 that he turned the part of Bond down in 1970.
"I was asked about it," he confirmed. "The Broccoli seniors said, 'This is James Bond!' and I said, 'I'm sorry I can't do it, I'm tied up with something else.' Also I thought it should be an Englishman."
Quite right, old bean.
13. Burt Reynolds
Burt was approached in 1970 for Diamonds Are Forever, before Connery agreed to return to the Bond role – a suggestion of the film's director Guy Hamilton, the offer came to Reynolds before his big breakout in '72's Deliverance.
Like West before him, the Michigan-born actor insisted that 007 should be played by someone English. But he later regretted the decision to spurn Bond.
"I think I could have done it well," he told the hosts of Good Morning America in 2015. "[But] in my stupidity, I said, 'An American can't play James Bond, it has to be an Englishman... nah, I can't do it.' Oops. Yeah, I could have done it."
14. Ewan McGregor
McGregor is thought to have met with casting directors for Casino Royale. "I think he got another job, or decided he didn't want to do it," Martin Campbell said in 2006.
McGregor did indeed suggest that long shoots and "a massive amount of publicity" might not allow him to "do any other work" – though admitted to The Hollywood Reporter in 2015 that he thought it'd "be quite cool to play James Bond".
Another regretful almost-007, perhaps?
15. Sam Worthington
Before his breakthrough role in 2009's Avatar, Worthington was also considered for Casino Royale. "We talked about it," he told the Daily Telegraph in 2011.
But while he was pipped to the post by Daniel Craig, Worthington insisted that he didn't have much interest in joining an established series. "What intrigues me more is the chance to start my own franchise and put my own stamp on a character," he said.
(We'll skip over the fact that Sam has Terminator Salvation on his acting CV.)
16. Karl Urban
Star Trek's Urban was another contender going up against Craig, with the New Zealand actor confirming in 2016 that he'd "met with [producer] Barbara Broccoli, and various other producers".
According to Urban's account, he had to drop out of the running for 007 when a movie he was shooting clashed with the final screen-test.
"But I'm actually pretty grateful I didn't [get it], because I think Daniel Craig did such an extraordinary job and I couldn't have imagined a better Bond," said courteous Karl.
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