Timothy Dalton

Dalton trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and built a substantial Shakespearean stage career with the National Youth Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company before moving into film and eventually the James Bond franchise.

Fresh off two turns as James Bond, Dalton brought real swashbuckling menace to two very different retrofuturist villains and heroes — Neville Sinclair's matinee-idol Nazi in The Rocketeer, and Flash Gordon's noble Prince Barin. His classical training gave him unusual dramatic seriousness for genre roles.

He has continued a prolific career in film, television and voice work in the decades since, respected for bringing genuine gravity to roles that might otherwise have tipped into pure camp.