People

By Sara C. Medina

"The name is Bond, James Bond." Those clipped words have identified the legendary hero of 15 films, beginning with Sean Connery in 1963's Dr. No. Connery played the suave Agent 007 seven times, as did Roger Moore; George Lazenby played him once. For Bond's next appearance, in The Living Daylights, which begins filming in London next month, Producer Albert Broccoli had selected the debonair, Irish-born Pierce Brosnan, star of TV's Remington Steele, after the NBC series was canceled. When Steele was renewed two months later, however, Brosnan had to bow out. So Welshman Timothy Dalton, 38, who has played Shakespeare as well as gracing such sudsy TV mini-series as Mistral's Daughter and Sins, got the part. "Connery and Moore are tough acts to follow," says Dalton, practicing Bond's good manners. Is playing 007 a comedown for someone who has been Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew? Not at all, says Dalton. "Bond is one of the few major roles for British actors."