Actors you totally forgot appeared in James Bond films

Thousands of names must have featured alongside legendary spy throughout the lengthy run of the James Bond film series on the big screen.

Beginning with Dr. No in 1962, 007 has made appearances in no fewer than 25 movies (plus two spin-offs), encountering innumerable friends and foes in the process.

Over the past 62 years, James Bond has been portrayed by Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, George Lazenby, and Timothy Dalton.

But what of the cast around them? So many famous faces have passed in front of the camera during the Bond series that some of them have been forgotten.

The list of names features one of the biggest selling popstars of all time, at least two cast members from Game of Thrones, and a star of one of Netflix’s biggest series’.

Research from Betway has revealed the top eight stars you probably forgot played a major role in one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.

Madonna

Top of the list is legendary pop sensation Madonna, who briefly starred alongside Pierce Brosnan as fencing instructor Verity in the 2002 film Die Another Day.

As well as performing the Bond theme song for the film – which reached number three in the UK charts – she was also one of the principal cast members.

Verity is introduced when James Bond attends fencing lessons in London – she is coaching her protege, Miranda Frost, who was played by Rosamund Pike.

Her appearance is so brief that Betway discovered Madonna was the biggest name from the Bond franchise that people had forgotten about over the years.

Die Another Day, which landed on the franchise’s 40th anniversary, proved to be the last Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan, with Daniel Craig taking over in 2005.

The film was released to mixed reviews – 56% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average 6.1 rating out of 10 – but has remained a favourite of Bond fans.

Charles Dance

Long before he was Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones, Charles Dance made his feature film debut starring as Claus in the 1981 Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

Starring Roger Moore as 007, For Your Eyes Only sees Bond race against the Soviet Union to track down and secure a hi-tech device related to British intelligence which has been lost at sea.

Claus is introduced as a henchman to the film’s main villain Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) when Bond is forced to flee on skis as Claus chases him.

Throughout the rest of the film, Claus is seen chasing Bond and trying to fight him in other environments but is eventually killed before he can complete his mission.

For Your Eyes Only currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 69% and an average critic score of 5.4 out of 10 – indicating more mixed reviews for the film.

It was a big success at the box office, however, grossing the 2024 equivalent of just over £500million. And yet, Charles Dance slipped under the radar!

David Harbour

Before he was James Hopper, the chief of police in Hawkins, Indiana, David Harbour was Gregg Beam in the 2008 Bond film Quantum of Solace.

Gregg was the head of the CIA’s South American section but was secretly corrupt, being revealed as an ally to the main antagonist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric).

In Quantum of Solace, Gregg is shown to be the boss of Bond’s close ally and friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).

Eventually, following Dominic Greene’s demise, Gregg is exposed for his ties to the Quantum businessman and Felix replaces him as section chief.

Much like Die Another Day and For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace was released to mixed reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 64%.

However, among Bond diehards, the film is considered a long-awaited revenge-based sequel to 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Minnie Driver

British-American actress Minnie Driver was only just making her first steps in the film industry when she was cast in the 1995 Bond film GoldenEye.

GoldenEye was the first Bond film to star Pierce Brosnan as 007 and saw him trying to stop a rogue MI6 agent (Sean Bean) from using satellite weapons against London.

Minnie plays Irina, the mistress of crime boss Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) – she works as a singer at a club owned by Zukovsky, which is where Bond meets her.

However, her singing isn’t quite up to standard (‘Who’s strangling the cat?’), and she’s last seen walking off stage just after Zukovsky orders her to ‘Take a hike!’

GoldenEye fared much better with critics than any film we’ve covered thus far, certified fresh at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6.8 out of 10.

The film also fared well at the box office, grossing the 2024 equivalent of £550m around the world, making it the most successful Bond film since the 1970s.

Hugh Bonneville

Did you know that Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham was once seen working alongside Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies?

Well, now you do! Hugh Bonneville was cast as an unnamed minor character, known only as Air Warfare Officer, just three years into his film career.

Serving on the HMS Bedford, Hugh’s character comes under attack from the Chinese Navy at the end of the film and is last seen as part of the search party looking for Bond and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh).

Despite the positive reviews received by GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies was seen as another mixed outing, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 57% and an average rating of 6.1 out of 10.

It performed well at the box office, however, with its eventual grossing total only just coming in under the massive success of GoldenEye two years before.

Sammy Davis Jr

This one we could forgive you for not knowing, considering Sammy Davis Jr.’s cameo in Diamonds Are Forever was removed from the final cut of the film.

The 1971 movie, which featured the classic Dame Shirley Bassey theme song of the same name, is the last to feature Sean Connery in the lead role, having been convinced to come back following his departure from the franchise in the 1960s.

Once regarded as the ‘greatest living entertainer in the world,’ Davis Jr. arrived on the Bond set having already been nominated for an Emmy and Grammy in the 1960s.

He appeared at a roulette table in initial cuts of Diamonds Are Forever but didn’t appear in the final film – his scene can be viewed on the DVD extras menu.

Diamonds Are Forever marks the fifth time that Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld appears – that’s the last time until 2015 film Spectre brought him back.

Tobias Menzies

Game of Thrones and Catastrophe star Tobias Menzies first appears in the James Bond franchise as M’s (Judi Dench) assistant Villiers in the 2006 film Casino Royale.

In the film, M is alerted by Villiers to Bond’s secret mission to track down the criminal mastermind Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), who is the main antagonist of the story.

Villiers is last seen when he happens upon a corpse – that of Solange Dimitrios – and immediately leaves the room with his hand covering his mouth.

Casino Royale marked a significant rebrand of the Bond franchise and to this day is considered one of the greatest James Bond films of all time, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 94% and an average rating of 7.8 out of 10.

Joanna Lumley

Absolutely Fabulous actress Joanna Lumley is a star on both big and small screens, but did you know she appeared in a minor role in one of the earliest James Bond films?

Back in 1969, she appeared as The English Girl, who was one of Blofeld’s Angels of Death and the only Angel of Death without an allergy (if you know, you know).

After her appearance in the film, Joanna returned to the Bond franchise, recording abridged versions of the Bond books Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and Diamonds Are Forever.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 81% with an average score of 5.7 out of 10, but has a strong reputation among Bond fans.