Pierce Brosnan can boast a legendary acting career, complete with a role-of-a-lifetime
run as James Bond in four films.
But away from his epic onscreen adventures, successive tragedies have plagued him throughout
his life.
Rough and tumble childhood
Shortly after Brosnan was born in a small Irish town, his father abandoned the family,
and his mother relocated to London for better work opportunities.
As a result, he was left to live with relatives, and at one point, in a boarding house with
strangers.
Brosnan later met his father, whom he refers to as Tom, only once, when he was 31, but
he didn't end up learning very much about him.
It was 1984 and Brosnan was already a star on the hit show Remington Steele.
He told Esquire in 2017,
"He was a good whistler and he had a good walk.
That's as much as I know about him."
After Brosnan's mother finished nursing school, she sent for him to come join her in London
to find work.
But it was still far from perfect after that.
Their South London neighborhood allegedly wasn't very hospitable to an Irish country
boy like Brosnan.
He revealed to CBS Sunday Morning that he felt the prejudice from his neighbors and
even hid his accent to assimilate.
Losing his first wife to cancer
In 1991, the unthinkable happened to Brosnan.
His wife, actress Cassandra Harris, died after a four-year battle with ovarian cancer.
The slow decline in her health and her eventual demise nearly ruined her husband.
He told People Magazine in 1992,
"This is the first time in my life I've ever experienced bereavement, and it's overwhelming."
Brosnan and Harris were married for 11 years and had one son together, and he also adopted
her other children from a previous marriage.
Some years later, Brosnan met his second wife, Keely Shaye Smith, and the pair tied the knot
in 2001.
Smith was instrumental in helping Brosnan grieve, but the actor noted to The Daily Mail
in 2013,
"The memory of Cassie and her fight against cancer is never forgotten."
On a more hopeful note, he added,
"I suppose Keely is my North Star, always looking out for me."
Brosnan talked about dealing with loss during an interview with Larry King in 2013.
"I had good family around me, I had my children, and I knew how to work, and you had a, you
know, find a job as an actor and plow forward."
Losing his daughter to cancer
Tragedy struck Brosnan's life again in 2013 when his daughter Charlotte passed away.
Like her mother, Charlotte lost a long battle with ovarian cancer.
In a statement, her father noted that she was surrounded by loved ones when she died.
She was just 41 years old.
According to the Mirror, the days and weeks leading up to Charlotte's death weren't entirely
difficult.
Brosnan was there to walk his daughter down the aisle as she married her longtime boyfriend
Alex.
The ceremony was private and it took place two weeks before she passed.
Charlotte's then-15-year-old daughter Isabella was a bridesmaid.
A wedding guest told The Sun,
"It was the most moving day of my life.
It wasn't a day to be sad.
Alex and Pierce were smiling broadly."
Losing his longtime producing partner
As if losing both his wife and daughter to ovarian cancer wasn't enough, Brosnan lost
yet another loved one to the disease: his longtime producing partner, Beau St. Clair.
She died in January 2016 at the age of 63 after a 10-year fight with the illness.
St. Clair and Brosnan founded the Irish DreamTime production company together in 1996.
It was responsible for some of Brosnan's biggest post-Bond hits, like The Thomas Crown Affair
and The November Man.
Brosnan was effusive in his praise of St. Clair, saying in a statement,
"Beau was the sister I never had, my dearest friend for 30 years.
[She] was a beautiful woman in every way.
She had style, grace, humor, intellect, and a kind heart that I will forever miss."
Son's near-fatal car crash
Brosnan nearly lost his son in a 2000 drunk-driving accident in California.
In what could have been a fatal accident, the then 13-year-old Sean Brosnan barely survived
after suffering a number of injuries, including multiple fractures and spinal injuries.
The accident occurred when the driver, identified as Sean's cousin James P. Hall, swerved to
avoid hitting a large rock, at which point the vehicle veered off a mountain road.
The car fell 150 to 200 feet.
Authorities used baskets and ropes to rescue Sean, James, and two other victims.
Pierce rushed to the scene and remained by his son's side the entire time.
Years later, the incident still plagued Brosnan.
He told the New York Daily News that he nearly turned down a role in the 2009 film The Greatest
because the character's son dies in a horrific car crash.
Kicked to the curb
Brosnan played the iconic spy James Bond in four films, from 1995's Goldeneye to 2002's
Die Another Day.
He was looking forward to a fifth 007 outing, but it was not meant to be.
In fact, the actor felt like he was "kicked to the curb" by the franchise's producers.
According to the book Some Kind Of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films,
Brosnan was in The Bahamas working on the film After the Sunset when his agents called
him up to inform him that negotiations for the next Bond film had ended.
During a phone call with Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, they said,
"We're so sorry.
You were a great James Bond.
Thank you very much."
To which Brosnan simply replied,
"Thank you very much.
Goodbye."
Thus ended Brosnan's run as the greatest MI6 agent of all time.
As blindsided as Brosnan claimed to be, the book's authors alleged that he was asking
for too much cash for the fifth film.
He was eventually replaced by Daniel Craig.
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