Actors you forgot appeared in James Bond films, including a major Netflix star

The James Bond film series has been on the big screen for so long that thousands of names must have appeared alongside the legendary spy by now.

Since 1962, 007 has been known as “Dr. No” has appeared in no less than 25 films (plus two spin-offs) and has met countless allies and villains along the way.

Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton have all played Bond over the last 62 years.

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

The list of names includes one of the best-selling pop stars of all time, at least two Game of Thrones cast members and a star from one of Netflix’s biggest series.

Research from Betway has revealed that the top eight stars you’ve probably forgotten played major roles in one of the biggest film franchises of all time.

Madonna

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

Not only did she sing the Bond theme song for the film, which reached number three in the British charts, but she was also one of the leading actresses.

Verity is introduced when James Bond is taking fencing lessons in London – training her protégé Miranda Frost, played by Rosamund Pike.

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

Die Another Day, released to mark the franchise’s 40th anniversary, proved to be the last Bond film to star Pierce Brosnan; In 2005, Daniel Craig took on the lead role.

The film received mixed reviews – 56% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 6.1 out of 10 – but remains a favorite of Bond fans.

Charles Dance

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

In For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore as 007, Bond fights against the Soviet Union to locate and secure a high-tech British Secret Service device lost at sea.

Claus is introduced as the henchman of the film’s main villain, Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover), when Bond is forced to escape on skis while Claus pursues him.

Throughout the rest of the film, Claus pursues Bond and attempts to fight him in other environments, but is ultimately killed before he can complete his mission.

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

However, the film was a huge success at the box office and grossed the equivalent of just over £500 million in 2024. And yet Charles Dance has slipped under the radar!

David Harbour

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

Gregg was the head of the CIA’s South American division, but was secretly corrupt and turned out to be an ally of the main antagonist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric).

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

Eventually, after the death of Dominic Greene, Gregg’s ties to the Quantum businessman are exposed and Felix replaces him as department head.

Similar to Die Another Day and For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace was released to mixed reviews, earning a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, among Bond fans, 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 just making her first steps into 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, in which he tried to stop a rogue MI6 agent (Sean Bean) from using satellite weapons against London.

Minnie plays Irina, the lover of crime boss Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) – she works as a singer in one of Zukovsky’s clubs, where Bond meets her.

However, her singing isn’t quite up to standard (“Who’s strangling the cat?”), and she was last seen leaving the stage shortly after Zukovsky ordered her, “Take a hike!”

“GoldenEye” did much better with critics than any other film we’ve covered before, earning an 80% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 6.8 out of 10.

The film also did well at the box office, grossing the equivalent of £550 million worldwide in 2024, making it the most successful Bond film since the 1970s.

Hugh Bonneville

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

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

Hugh’s character, serving on the HMS Bedford, is attacked by 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 GoldenEye received, Tomorrow Never Dies was considered another mixed outing, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 57% and an average rating of 6.1 out of 10.

However, the film did well at the box office, and the eventual box office revenue only just matched the huge success of “GoldenEye” two years earlier.

Sammy Davis Jr

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

The 1971 film, which featured Dame Shirley Bassey’s classic theme song of the same name, is the last to star Sean Connery, who was convinced to return after exiting the franchise in the 1960s.

Davis Jr., once considered “the greatest living entertainer in the world,” arrived on the Bond set having previously been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy in the 1960s.

He appeared at a roulette table in the early versions of Diamonds Are Forever, but did not appear in the final film – his scene can be viewed in the DVD extras menu.

“Diamonds Are Forever” marks the fifth time that Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld has appeared – the last time until the 2015 film “Spectre” brought him back.

Tobias Menzies

Game of Thrones and Catastrophe star Tobias Menzies makes his first appearance in the James Bond series as Ms (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 comes across a corpse – that of Solange Dimitrios – and immediately leaves the room with his hand over his mouth.

Casino Royale marked a significant rebranding of the Bond franchise and is still 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

The absolutely fabulous actress Joanna Lumley is a star on both the big and small screens, but did you know she had a supporting role in one of the earliest James Bond films?

In 1969, she appeared as The English Girl, one of Blofeld’s Angels of Death and the only Angel of Death without allergies (if you know, you know).

After her appearance in the film, Joanna returned to the Bond franchise and recorded 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 good reputation among Bond fans.

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