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Action film legend Liam Neeson, 70, may have joined the lengthy list of actors to take on the James Bond moniker in the early 1990s. However, the actor has now revealed that despite wanting to be in the running for the role, his girlfriend at the time, Natasha Richardson, gave him a choice he could not refuse.
Liam was a rising action star in the 1980s, with roles in Excalibur, The Innocent and Next of Kin.
Around the same time, the James Bond team was seeking a new actor to take on the role after Timothy Dalton’s final appearance in 1989’s Licence To Kill.
With producers actively searching, Liam was “interested” in throwing his hat in the ring, but was ultimately forbidden as love triumphed.
He told Rolling Stone that his late wife, Natasha, sat him down while he was filming Nell in 1994.
The actor recalled her saying: “Liam, I want to tell you something: If you play James Bond, we’re not getting married.”
The choice was already decided in Liam’s mind, but he wasn’t necessarily open with that information at the time.
He continued: “I would tease her by going behind her back, making my fingers as though I’m holding a gun, and then (hums the James Bond theme).
“I loved doing that s**t!
“She gave me a James Bond ultimatum. And she meant it!”
In a different interview, with Hull Daily Mail, Liam claimed he was “heavily courted” to take on the Bond role, but his desire to marry Natasha far outweighed any role he could receive.
Natasha and Liam married in 1994, the very same year she had made the Bond ultimatum.
It was the actress’ second marriage, having divorced filmmaker Robert Fox in 1992 after just two years of marriage.
Liam was also previously involved in a serious relationship with actress Helen Mirren for years before Natasha, but the pair amicably split after living together and are still friends to this day.
Natasha and Liam welcomed two sons into their growing family before the end of the decade
In 2009, Natasha suffered a head injury after a skiing accident at the Mon Tremblant Resort in Montreal.
The injury proved too severe and the actress died on March 18 of that year, after 16 years of marriage to Liam.
The Taken star has never remarried following Natasha’s death and told Anderson Cooper in 2014 that he still hadn’t quite processed the loss.
He said at the time: “The Earth isn’t stable anymore and then it passes and it becomes more infrequent, but I still get it sometimes.
“(Her death) was never real, it still kind of isn’t.
“There’s periods now in our New York residence when I hear the door opening, especially the first couple of years.
“Anytime I hear that door opening, I still think I’m going to hear her.”
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