Pierce Brosnan is a very popular actor who has been in a wide range of movies and movie genres throughout his career. He’s acted in almost 70 movies so far, and it seems like he won’t be stopping soon. Of course, his career really launched into the stratosphere when he took on the role of James Bond, and his movies have become important to the James Bond legacy. While action movies are definitely a part of his usual repertoire, you can also find him in rom-coms, murder mysteries, and even dramas.
While his legacy tends to be that of the hero, having been Bond for four movies, Brosnan has recently become the villain for the upcoming DC movie Black Adam. He will star as Doctor Fate alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the titular hero. We can expect great things from his performance based on the praise the cast has given him, and the movie is sure to be full of thrilling action. While we wait for the release of Black Adam though, take a look through some of the best movies he’s acted in throughout his career.
8 Mama Mia!
In Mama Mia!, Sophie Sheridan has invited three men to her wedding that are her mother’s past lovers. She had never known her father, but is certain from her mom’s journal that it was one of these three men. All she wants is for her father to give her away at the altar, and she believes she’ll know which one is her father once she gets to know them.
However, she didn’t tell her mother before they arrived for the wedding, and problems begin to emerge as Sophie tries to figure this out while her mom has conflicted feelings about seeing any of them again. Brosnan plays Sam, one of the three men that might be Sophie’s dad. Though many people (including himself) seemed to agree his singing wasn’t the best, his acting more than makes up for it as he charmingly takes on the sudden new father role without apprehension.
7 Tomorrow Never Dies
The second of Brosnan’s James Bond films, Tomorrow Never Dies is about stopping a war between the English and the Chinese. Elliot Carver, the owner of a media company, has been illegally starting conflict between the English and Chinese so that his ally can take over China, which will give him control over China’s media for at least the next century. Bond is sent to investigate when Carver’s newspaper reports on the situation before MI6 found out, and now he must figure out and stop Carver’s plans to help prevent war.
Critics believed the action sequences to be thrilling, and of course, they would never be the same without Brosnan. As his second Bond movie, Brosnan shows he still fully understands the nuances of the character and helps bring personality to the action movie, increasing its sex appeal and smoothly handling every scene.
6 Evelyn
Loosely based on a true story, Evelyn is an Irish drama that focuses on a father trying to regain custody of his children. When Desmond Doyle’s wife leaves him, the children are left behind in a struggling household wherein Doyle is a drunkard and out of work. When the situation is reported, his children are taken from him and sent to orphanages. Though he initially has little hope of ever getting his children back, he slowly reforms his life and turns it around so that he can take his case back to court and try to reunite his kids under his roof once more.
Brosnan plays Doyle in this movie, and he once again has no problems stepping into the father figure role. Doyle has a lot of facets to his character as he struggles to turn his life around and clearly cares for the kids, and Brosnan makes sure none of them are hidden at any point in the movie, perfectly balancing the character.
5 The Thomas Crown Affair
The Thomas Crown Affair is a remake of a movie of the same name, and Brosnan is a surprisingly good replacement for the legendary Steve McQueen from the original. Thomas Crown, a billionaire criminal, steals a painting from a museum and initially gets away without any issues. However, as soon as he donates another one to fill the space on the wall for the time being, he places suspicion on himself from the insurance investigator.
Now they both try to outsmart the other as he tries to avoid being caught while she tries to catch him. As they do, they slowly begin to fall in love. Brosnan plays Thomas Crown in this movie, perfecting the role of an arrogant billionaire trying to pretend he’s done nothing wrong. He brings life to the role in a way no one else could, and really ties the story together.
4 The Matador
In The Matador, two unlikely men meet in a Mexico City hotel bar — Danny Wright (an endearing Greg Kinnear), a businessman down on his luck and looking for something to help boost his career, and Julian Noble, an assassin who is beginning to struggle with the weight of his job. They make an unlikely pair of friends as they confide their struggles in one another, and eventually, Julian convinces Danny to help him with his last job, one he can’t get through alone, so he can finally retire to Greece. Brosnan plays Julian in this movie, comically but tenderly balancing the jaded killer side of the character with his regrets and panic at the thought of killing anyone else. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role as well.
3 Mrs. Doubtfire
Mrs. Doubtfire is about voice actor Daniel Hillard and his family. He is devoted to his children but his wife Miranda finds him unreliable, especially after he quits his job over a disagreement, and she files for divorce. The court grants her sole custody but gives Hillard three months to get a house and a stable job if he wants joint custody.
When he discovers Miranda is looking for a housekeeper, he decides to use his voice acting and special makeup to pose as Mrs. Doubtfire and take the position himself to be close to the kids again. Brosnan plays Stu Dunmeyer, the boyfriend of Miranda after the divorce. Though he may be a minor character, his performance when we do see him is incredible, showing he is not trying to impose on the kids but still treats them as if they were his own.
2 GoldenEye
The movie that really kicked Brosnan’s career into gear was GoldenEye. This James Bond movie is the first Brosnan was in, and features Bond fighting against Russia during and after the Soviet Union dissolved. After attempting and failing to prevent the theft of an attack helicopter, MI6 tracks the helicopter only to watch it and other fighter aircraft destroyed under a strong electromagnetic pulse.
Bond is sent to investigate after they determine the pulse came from a weapon named GoldenEye, which is a Soviet satellite armed with a nuclear electromagnetic pulse. Now the spy must find who is behind it and put an end to their operation before they use the pulse to cause even more damage. Brosnan took the role of Bond that several actors had played before him, and brought him to life in his own special way while still keeping him recognizable for fans of the franchise.
1 The Ghost Writer
The Ghost Writer is a political drama about a ghostwriter hired to finish writing the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang. A ghostwriter is when someone writes something but doesn’t get the credit for it. The previous ghostwriter, Mike McAra, was found dead; the new one (a wonderful Ewan McGregor) quickly discovers why when he finds secret letters from McAra, as Lang is suddenly under investigation for possible terrorism acts.The current ghostwriter gets wrapped into the investigations as he makes contact with McAra’s people and tries to avoid getting murdered himself. Brosnan is Adam Lang, bringing his own twists to the possibly corrupt politician and still helping the character resemble real Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was the inspiration for Lang. It's a charming but devious performance.