14 Interesting Facts About Pierce Brosnan

Are you curious to know some interesting facts about Pierce Brosnan?

Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was born on Drogheda, County Louth, Republic of Ireland, on the 16th of May 1953.

He lived in Navan, County Meath, for more than a decade. It is the that place Brosnan considers his hometown.

He is best known for his role as the iconic secret agent James Bond, starring in four James Bond films: GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999), and Die Another Day (2002). Besides acting, Brosnan also produces films.

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Brosnan got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997 as a recognition of his contributions to the film industry. Read on to learn more interesting facts about Pierce Brosnan.

14 Interesting Facts About Pierce Brosnan

1. He was named after his grandfather

Pierce Brosnan shares his name with his paternal grandfather, Pierce Brosnan, who himself was named after the surnames of both his parents, Margaret Pierce and John Brosnan.

2. Pierce Brosnan was raised by his maternal relatives

Pierce Brosnan never knew his father. Thomas Brosnan abandoned Pierce and his mother when he was a baby. He was four when his mother, a nurse, relocated to England to work there. Her parents, Kathleen and Philip Smith, raised him.

When the Smiths died, Pierce Brosnan was then brought up by his aunt and then his uncle. Later on, he was sent to a boarding house to live there on his own, overseen by the landlady.

3. Brosnan was 11 when he saw a James Bond movie for the first time

When Brosnan’s mother remarried, he moved to Longniddry, Scotland, to be with her and her new husband.

William Carmichael, his stepfather, took the young Brosnan to see a James Bond film for the first time. It was the 1964 Goldfinger, starred by Sean Connery as the secret agent 007. Pierce Brosnan was 11 at the time.

4. He was nicknamed simply “Irish” at the London school he attended

Brosnan’s mother and stepfather moved back to England with young Pierce Brosnan. Brosnan attended Elliott School (now called Ark Putney Academy) in Putney, in London, where he felt such an outsider. Schoolmates called him simply “Irish.”

5. Brosnan suffers from claustrophobia

Contrary to the fearless James Bond role he played, Pierce Brosnan is just like the rest of us: He is only human. He has fears just like we all do.

Brosnan suffers from claustrophia, an extreme fear of enclosed spaces. This condition has posed quite a few challenges to the Irish actor.

Filming the 1997 sci-fi natural disaster thriller Dante’s Peak was exceptionally hard for Brosnan because of this claustrophobia. However, he managed to pull it through and, keeping himself together, delivered a very impressive performance.

6. Before he became famous, Pierce Brosnan worked as a professional fire-eater

Not many of us are aware that Pierce Brosnan was a professional fire-eater before he became one of the famous Irish people in the world. He learned fire-eating while he was sharpening his skills in acting.

Back in his younger days, he performed as a fire-eater at a circus. He continued doing it every now and then. Unfortunately, he had to give it up in 1996 after an accident during an appearance on The Muppets that seriously hurt his mouth.

7. Brosnan had been married for 11 years to an Australian actress when she died

Pierce Brosnan married Australian actress Cassandra Harris in 1980. Together they had one child and two from Harris’ previous marriage. Upon their biological father’s death, Brosnan legally adopted his two stepchildren.

Cassandra Harris died of ovarian cancer on December 28, 1991, after 11 years of being married to the dashing Irishman.

8. He remarried in 2001

Having been widowed for 10 years, Brosnan got married for the second time to American journalist Keely Shaye Smith whom he met in 1994 in Mexico.

Brosnan and Smith got married at Ballintubber Abbey in Ireland on August 4, 2001. The union has produced two sons.

The Brosnans’ main residence is in Malibu, California. They also have a home in Kauai, Hawaii, as well as in Dublin and County Meath in Ireland.

9. The stepdaughter he adopted died of ovarian cancer just like her mother

Upon his wife’s death, Pierce Brosnan shouldered the obligation to raise their son Sean as well as her two other children, Christopher and Charlotte – both legally adopted by Brosnan.

After Cassandra Harris’ passing, Brosnan has remained a dedicated family man and continued to dote on all his three children.

In 2013, the same tragic loss befell the Brosnans. Charlotte succumbed to ovarian cancer, the same illness that took her mother’s life and her grandmother before her.

10. Pierce Brosnan got a scar for shooting Tomorrow Never Dies

You may have noticed that Pierce Brosnan bears a small scar on the right side of his upper lip. He got this much talked-about scar from a stunt man who accidentally hit him during a scene while filming Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.

Instead of a flaw, the scar is seen as a defining feature on the Irishman’s already dashing good looks.

11. Pierce Brosnan was given a car for every James Bond film he made

As if the hefty talent fee was not enough, Brosnan received a special bonus for every James Bond movie he finished. He was gifted a brand new car each time, courtesy of BMW.

For Goldeneye, he was given a Z3. Tomorrow Never Dies presented him with a BMW 8 Series and he got a Z8 for The World Is Not Enough. For Die Another Day, he took home an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

The latter was destroyed by fire at his Malibu home on 11 February 2015. It was part of the $1 million sustained in damages. Luckily, no one died or was injured.

12. Pierce Brosnan paints as well

Prior to fame during his younger years, Brosnan pursued a career in art. In fact, he started to work as an illustrator after leaving school.

To be an artist and a painter was what he had always wanted, so began as a trainee artist in a small South London studio. It was during his time there that he got conviced to attend a theatre workshop, eventually giving up his artwork to try his hands on acting.

His artistic influences, Brosnan claims, are Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso. Brosnan raises money for charity through the sales of his paintings.

13. Though a baptized Catholic, Brosnan also adheres to other spiritual beliefs

Pierce Brosnan was raised in a Catholic family and in his youth in Ireland he used to be an altar boy. He does attend Mass to this day. However, he also claims to adhere to the teachings of Buddhism.

14. Queen Elizabeth made him an honorary OBE

The late Queen Elizabeth made the Irish actor an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire in July 2003. This was to recognize his “outstanding contribution to the British film industry.”

As an Irish citizen, though, Brosnan is not eligible to be awarded the full OBE honor because it is given only to citizens of the British Commonwealth realms. However, his name is still entitled to the “OBE” suffix.