Pierce Brosnan was left ‘heartbroken’ after his original James Bond screen test

Pierce Brosnan was the James Bond of the 1990s, but did you know he was almost the 007 of the late 1980s?

The Remington Steele TV star auditioned for 1987’s The Living Daylights, a reboot for the series after seven Roger Moore outings which is on ITV this afternoon. He bagged the role, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Previously sharing a still from his screen test for what would be Timothy Dalton’s first 007 movie, Brosnan captioned the post: “A still from my screen test for Bond The Living Daylights back in 1986.

“I got the job, however, there was a catch, I couldn’t get out of my contract with Remington Steele…and, well, let’s save it for the memoirs.”

Before he died last year, Remington Steele co-star Louie Anderson shared memories of the star being “heartbroken” by having to drop Bond after being cast.

Louie previously told Entertainment Weekly: “That was at the time when Pierce Brosnan was offered James Bond and they wouldn’t let him out of the contract. He was devastated. It was a horrible thing for him. He did talk to me about it. He was heartbroken. He wasn’t mad, he was heartbroken.

“Y’know he’s a lovely human being and he was really heartbroken. It was really fun working with him, he’s so funny. But really it made me understand show business; what you sign. Make sure you read what you sign.

“But later he got to play James Bond, so I was thrilled. I’m sorry I wasn’t one of the Bond girls, but you can’t have everything.”

Dalton returned to play Bond for a second and final time in 1989’s Licence to Kill, which is on ITV tomorrow afternoon, but his third movie never came about.

After the franchise’s longest-ever hiatus, he was up for one more, but producer Cubby Broccoli wanted him to come back to star in several after such a gap.

So, in the end, Brosnan got what he wanted and was cast as 007 in 1995’s GoldenEye. The Irish star went on to play Bond three more times in Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day.