James Bond was almost played by this iconic actor until Roger Moore said yes

Roger Moore is one of the most beloved James Bond actors, an iconic character that has only been played by six other people on the big screen.

However James Brolin has now revealed how he was almost actor number eight, as he was in talks to take over the role from Roger in 1983.

Roger had decided he didn’t want to work on any further Bond movies and so the James Bond bosses approached James to take on the role for Octopussy.

“[Roger] was out, so I flew over and I met all the people. And I got my apartment and I started working with the stuntmen and Cubby Broccoli hired me,” James recalled in a new interview. “We hadn’t signed any papers yet. I got back to L.A. to get my stuff because I was going to be gone for a year. And I got a call saying Roger decided to do one more, and I was out.”

Speaking to People, James, who will turn 85 on July 18, said that the offer came at a time when the industry didn’t know “what to do” with him after he had found success in The Amityville Horror, one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time.

“I got offered [the first] Superman and turned it down because I couldn’t see myself being hung up on wires in a big red sock. It just wasn’t the direction I wanted to go,” he shared, adding that he then realized he “really liked character acting”.

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James went on to star in numerous award-winning classics, including 2000’s Traffic, Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002, and as the voice of Emperor Zurg in the Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear.

Roger starred in seven James Bond films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985).

He was 56 when he starred in Octopussy; his seven appearances as 007 are the most of any actor.

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He married Barbra Streisand in 1998, two years after they met, and Barbra revealed in 2024 that a comment James made about their romance inspired songwriter Diane Warren to write the song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” for Armageddon. 

James was also married to wildlife activist and aspiring actress Jane Cameron Agee, whom he married in 1962, 12 days after they met.

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They are parents to two children, including welcoming their son Josh in 1968; Josh is also an actor, and is a SAG Award winner for No Country for Old Men (2007) and an Oscar nominee for the 2008 Harvey Milk biopic Milk.