Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. He trained at the National Youth Theater and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1991, before beginning his career on stage. His film debut was in the drama The Power of One. Other early appearances were in the historical television war drama Sharpe’s Eagle, Disney family film A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, the drama serial Our Friends in the North and the biographical film Elizabeth. Take a look below for 31 more fun and fascinating facts about Daniel Craig.
1. Craig was born on March 2, 1968, in Chester, Cheshire.
2. His mother, Carol Olivia, was an art teacher, and his father, Timothy John Wroughton Craig, was a midshipman in the Merchant Navy before becoming the landlord of two pubs: the Ring o’ Bells in Frodsham, Cheshire, and the Boot Inn in Tarporley, Cheshire.
3. Aside from English, Craig has Welsh, Scottish, and distant French Huguenot, ancestry. Huguenot minister Daniel Chamier is among his ancestors, as is Sir William Burnaby, 1st Baronet.
4. His middle name, Wroughton, comes from his great-great-grandmother, Grace Matilda Wroughton.
5. Raised on the Wirral Peninsula, Craig attended primary school in Frodsham and Hoylake, Merseyside.
6. He later attended Hilbre High School in West Kirby, Merseyside, along with his elder sister Lea (born 1965), after failing his eleven-plus exam.
7. When his parents divorced, Craig and his sister lived with their mother, moving to Liverpool.
8. Upon finishing his compulsory secondary school education at the age of 16, he briefly joined Calday Grange Grammar School as a sixth form student.
9. He played rugby union for Hoylake RFC.
10. Craig began acting in school plays at the age of six, and was introduced to serious acting by attending Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre with his mother.
11. At the age of 16, he was accepted into the National Youth Theatre, leaving school and moving to London, where he worked part-time in restaurants to finance his training.
12. Later on, after multiple attempts at auditioning for drama schools, he was accepted at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican, where he graduated in 1991 after three years of study under Colin McCormack.
13. Craig appeared in his first screen role in 1992, playing an Afrikaner in The Power of One.
14. He then appeared as Joe in the Royal National Theatre’s production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America in November 1993.
15. In 2005, Craig was contacted by Eon Productions to portray James Bond. He stated he “was aware of the challenges” of the Bond franchise, which he considered “a big machine that makes a lot of money”.
16. Born in 1968, Craig is the first actor to portray James Bond to have been born after the Bond series started and after the death of Ian Fleming, the novels’ writer.
17. The first film, Casino Royale, premiered on 14 November 2006, and grossed a total of US$594,239,066 worldwide, which made it the highest-grossing Bond film until the release of Skyfall. After the film was released, Craig’s performance was highly acclaimed.
18. Craig starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the science fiction horror film The Invasion in 2007, the fourth film adaptation of the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney.
19. He co-starred with Hugh Jackman in a limited engagement of the drama A Steady Rain, on Broadway, which played from 10 September through 6 December 2009 at the Schoenfeld Theatre.
20. Prior to the inaugural Invictus Games held in London in September 2014, Craig along with other entertainers and athletes read the poem “Invictus” in a promotional video.
21. He made an uncredited cameo appearance as a Stormtrooper in the Star Wars sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.
22. Craig has described his portrayal of Bond as an anti-hero: “The question I keep asking myself while playing the role is, ‘Am I the good guy or just a bad guy who works for the good side?’ Bond’s role, after all, is that of an assassin when you come down to it. I have never played a role in which someone’s dark side shouldn’t be explored. I don’t think it should be confusing by the end of the film, but during the film you should be questioning who he is.”
23. Craig has stated that his own favorite previous Bond actor is Sean Connery, but says, “I’d never copy somebody else. I would never do an impression of anybody else or try and improve on what they did. That would be a pointless exercise for me.”
24. Craig participated in the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising 8 December 2009, raising $1,549,953 in the 21st annual Gypsy of the Year competition, from six weeks of curtain appeals at their hit Broadway drama, A Steady Rain.
25. He is involved with multiple charities including S.A.F.E. Kenya, which uses street theater to address social issues.
26. He is also involved with the Opportunity Network, which provides access to education for low-income students in New York.
27. In 1992, Craig married actress Fiona Loudon, with whom he had a daughter named Ella before the two divorced in 1994.
28. He later began a seven-year relationship with German actress Heike Makatsch, which ended in 2004. He subsequently dated and was engaged to film producer Satsuki Mitchell from 2005 until 2010.
29. Craig and actress Rachel Weisz had been friends for many years, and worked together on the movie Dream House. They began dating in December 2010. They were married in a private New York City ceremony on 22 June 2011 with only four guests in attendance, including Craig’s daughter and Weisz’s son. It was reported on 1 September 2018 that their first child together, a daughter, had been born.
30. In October 2008, Craig paid £4 million for an apartment in a converted old house in Primrose Hill, London.
31. Craig is an atheist, but has been reluctant to discuss his religious beliefs. During an interview about the apparently anti-religious message of the 2007 film The Golden Compass, in which he starred, he stated: “I’ve never been religious and I’m not a church-goer, but I do find religion fascinating because it has such a huge impact on our lives.”
