- Roger Moore, For Your Eyes Only, 1981.
- Christophe(r) Lambert, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, 1984. For once, having the best English of the French actors counted against him. The ape-man was taught to speak by a Belgian explorer in the film of ex-commercials director Hugh Hudson. Robert Towne’s Tarzan choice was the French Laurent Malet (and not his twin actor brother Pierre) when due to direct his own script – finally credited to PH Vazak (his Hungarian Shepherd dog). Nearly on the vine for Hudson (from Chariots of Fire) were: Hollywood hunks, Richard Gere, Harry Hamlin and Viggo Mortensen; another Frenchy: Patrick Norbert; and… and… Rupert Everett! Lambert nearly quit because he he had no wish for a long separation from his Paris lover, Nathalie Baye.
- André Dussollier, Trois hommes et un coufin, France 1985. Of the three guys in the smash-hit movie, only Michel Boujenah was chosen without question (he won the best supporting César actor; the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar… while Chicago critic Roger Ebert railed against “the stupidity on the screen.”) Jean-Pierre Bacri, Christophe(r) Lambert and Lamvert Wilson fled from Jacques, the baby’s father and auteur Coline Serreau booked Jean-Claude Brialy. Producer Jean-François disagreed as Brialy was famously gay and no one would believe he’d fathered a child. Brialy quit for Charlotte Gainbsbourg’s L‘effrontée. André Dussolier was chosen over Christopher Malavoy. I avoided the Paris Press screening – who needed another horror movie – after mistaking couffin (cradle) for coffin..
- Rupert Everett, Arthur The King, USA-Yugoslavia, TV, 1985. The only Frenchman asked to play Sir Lancelot. Said Non – and escaped… the worst Camelot saga ever made
- Timothy Dalton, The Living Daylights, 1987.
- Daniel Auteuil, Quelque jours avec moi (US: A Few Days With Me),France, 1987. The supreme realisateur Claude Sautet wanted Michel Blanc; co-scenarist Jacques Fieschi voted Wilson. Mix them together and what do you get but Auteuil. After a week’s gestation, he agreed to be the indolent scion of a wealthy family… and the killer ofhis waitress lover Sandrine Bonnaire’s odious boss.
- Jacques Dutronc, Van Gogh, France, 1990. Everyone was backing out, so the obnoxious realisateur Maurice Pialat (who detested the 1956 Vincente Minnelli version) was recommended to meet Wilson. Pialat talked about his film and Wilson talked about his – suggesting the drector see his most recent work, Hiver ’47. He did. “And I never heard from him again!” Dutronc won a César award. So Wilson never played Van Gogh Or Bond), but he did incarnate three grerat French heroes… ther Abbe Pierre, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Charles De Gaulle.
- Pierce Brosnan, GoldenEye, 1995.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8