Pierce Brosnan! Poufy-haired heartthrob of the ’80s turned James Bond turned hey he’s a decent actor? This Irish actor started on stage, then went on to TV and movies. I think it’s time we look as his frock flicks, don’t you?
Actor playing ‘Jamie’ (uncredited) in The Mirror Crack’d (1980)
A feature film adaptation of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, set amongst a 1950s film production about Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I.
Rory O’Manion in The Manions of America (1981)
A TV miniseries about an Irish farmer who escapes the potato famine by coming to the US, when the Civil War breaks out.
Robert Gould Shaw in Nancy Astor (1982)
A biopic of the real woman who started as an American debutante and ended up the first female MP in the British Parliament, serving from 1919-45. Brosnan plays her first husband.
William Savage in The Deceivers (1988)
In 1825 India, Brosnan plays an English captain investigating a secret Kali cult. An early Merchant-Ivory production!
Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
An American TV adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. Brosnan plays the lead, circumnavigator Phileas Fogg.
Harry Rudbeck in Mister Johnson (1990)
“Set in 1929 … a Nigerian who works as a clerk for the British civil service and adopts the style of the British colonialists in the belief that he is a true Englishman” per Wikipedia.
Sir William Johnson in The Broken Chain (1993)
A TV movie about real-life Iroquois warrior Thayendanegea participating in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.
Robinson Crusoe in Robinson Crusoe (1997)
A feature film adaptation of the Daniel Defoe 1719 castaway classic.
Archie Grey Owl in Grey Owl (1999)
Per Wikipedia, “Archibald Belaney from Britain grows up fascinated with Native American culture—so much so that in the early 1900s, he leaves the United Kingdom for Canada, where he reinvents himself as trapper Archie Grey Owl and pretends to be a First Nations native. Eventually, Belaney becomes an environmentalist after renouncing trapping and hunting.”
Desmond Doyle in Evelyn (2002)
Based on a true story, this film is about an Irish ex-alcoholic trying to regain custody of his children in the 1950s.
Gideon in Seraphim Falls (2006)
A “revisionist Western” about a bounty hunt for a Union soldier by a Confederate colonel following the American Civil War in the late 1860s.
Eli McCullough in The Son (2017-19)
A TV Western about a 1915 man who is a cattle/oil baron but who was kidnapped and raised by Comanche Indians in his childhood.
King Louis XIV in The King’s Daughter (2022)
A fantasy film about the French king and a mermaid. Don’t ask me, Trystan watched it!
Which is your favorite of Pierce Brosnan’s historical films and TV shows?
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! Yes, Polly Walker does redeem things (to a certain extent). :)
Really? I’d have expected a team-up between herself and Mr Brosnan to drag whole audiences into the Circle of Lust…
Oh, I was just referring to Polly Walker in general. :)
Those are, indeed, beavers in Grey Owl.
Pretty good list. Also, Brosnan’s character in “The Minions of America” immigrated to the States during the mid-to-late 1840s. His character did fight in the Civil War.
I was, in all seriousness, thinking that Ms Kate Mulgrew and Mr Brosnan made a most handsome couple in their on-screen pairing when I was suddenly struck from ambush by the little imp of mischief that whispered “So THAT’S where Captain Janeway picked up her taste for a spot of Irish Delight” and started howling with laughter.
Anyone who has watched VOYAGER ‘Fair Haven’ will know what makes this quite, quite funny.
…
Also, Elizabeth Taylor in PURPLE? No wonder young Pierce’s hair is standing to attention!
Mr Pierce Brosnan would be just annoyingly handsome if it weren’t for the fact he’s so d—- charming to boot.
(Which should arguably be annoying in it’s own right, but somehow fails to be: truly his Fairy Godmother was free with her blessings!).
I was very much surprised how much I did like “The broken chain”. Maybe he was not the best actor in the movie but I had the impression, that the movie had an important story to tell and he was perfect for this role and even was so smart to show how he got old.
He was so beautiful that almost hurts to look at him. Sigh. Also, you see a lot of him in The Deceivers so much to the point that I pestered my mom to rent it so I could watch as a freshman arguing it had something to my assigned reading of A Passage to India (dear reader – it doesn’t really) and when that scene shows up, she just shot me a glance.
Also, yes, Polly Walker redeems most things.
Maria von Trapp must have had temporary custody of Desmond Doyle’s kids; she pulled down her curtains and made them all matching jackets! At least they had fun and got to sing a lot.
Evelyn was an excellent movie, I really liked it. I saw Brosnan walking down the street in NYC at the height of his James Bond fame…so relaxed and nice to everyone. And truly, awesomely handsome. So much so that I had to run to my hotel (pre-cellphone!) and call my sister to tell her I was starstruck. :)