How did our pasty-faced little school pal Danny become the best paid Bond of all time?
HIS muscular physique and brooding good looks have made him synonymous with the role of James Bond.
But no one who remembers the ‘delicate’ little schoolboy at Hoylake Primary can have imagined little Daniel Craig would go on to super stardom as the world’s most famous spy.
With his long-awaited final 007 outing No Time To Die just days from release, the Mail tracked down his contemporaries from Class 10 to find out their memories of their famous classmate.
Of the 29 pupils in his class at the school on the Wirral – aged 10 and 11 in this picture from March 1979 – several went on to become teachers and civil servants. There were also lorry drivers, a landscape gardener, Royal Navy engineer, tennis coach, postman and chauffeur among the group.
Lindsay Holmes, now 53 and a teacher, said: ‘Daniel was quite quiet and little. A wee delicate boy who had very strong, pale blue, watery eyes. My mum was a dinner lady and would always make sure Daniel was eating because he wasn’t very big at that stage.’
Miss Holmes added: ‘I’ve used that school photo quite a bit in my teaching. I used to get the kids to try to guess who the famous person was. I’d tell them about the quiet boy who got into acting and became James Bond.’
Another classmate – 53-year-old Debbie Green, now a chauffeur – said the class photo was the last taken before they all went on to nearby Hilbre High School.
‘I knew him as Danny back then,’ she said. ‘He was always a really nice lad. He was in every show and play at school. I was gobsmacked when he landed the role of Bond, but I think he’s been brilliant.’ Debbie also remembered Craig as the brooding lead singer of his school rock band, Inner Voices. ‘They sang House of the Rising Sun by The Animals,’ she said. ‘It’s still the best version I ever heard!’
Tony Barlow, also 53, a former tennis coach who runs his own education business in Indonesia, remembers Craig as a ‘good kid’.
He uncovered a review by the actor of a performance by a visiting theatre troupe, in which Craig praises actors for playing more than one part and concludes: ‘All in all I thought it was very good.’
Craig starred in many productions at Hilbre High before going to drama school and breaking into movies. He is said to have earned £20million for No Time To Die.
But what of his Class 10 teacher Anne Ezard? She still lives on the Wirral but wouldn’t divulge any details when we tracked her down. ‘I’ve never spoken about him and never will,’ she said. No Time To Die is in cinemas from September 30.