3. Liam Neeson
Year Considered: 1994
Reason He Didn't Get The Role: Didn't Want To Do Action Movies (?!) Back in 1994, when Irish actor Liam Neeson was genuinely interested in doing proper acting and not just getting shot and threatened in various European cities, the Bond producers approached him with the chance to take on the role of the world's most famous international spy. For any actor, you'll agree that that's a life-changing occurrence: the James Bond people think that you have what it takes to be freakin' James Bond. Come on! And yet Neeson denied the opportunity to follow in Timothy Dalton's footsteps outright, for a reason that seems somewhat insane nowadays, considering how the actor has spent the last five years of his career:
he didn't want to get involved in action movies. Yes, Liam "I Have A Very Particular Set Of Skills" Neeson turned down Bond because he wanted to do more films like
Schindler's List and, uh,
Rob Roy. He's really changed his tune since, though: he can't get out of action mode, apparently.