Tomorrow Never Dies Cast

Geoffrey Palmer as Admiral Roebuck

Colin Salmon as Charles Robinson

Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufman

Joe Don Baker as Jack Wade
The Tomorrow Never Dies cast was a stellar cast of talented actors – a mix of old friends and new foes that brought a new and inventive investigation to the popcorn box.
Pierce Brosnan, who had already established himself as James Bond in GoldenEye, reprised his role as the MI6 agent 007. Brosnan always delivered, even if the plots weren’t up to his high standards.
That’s not to say Tomorrow Never Dies wasn’t a good plot, because it was full of intrigue and offered some creative action sequences. The pre-title sequence was full of intense drama, and Brosnan brought his typical sophisticated charm and sharp wit to the table during a high stakes scene.
It was his partnership with Chinese agent Wai Lin that was the highlight of the film. Michelle Yeoh was cast as Wai Lin and the two both helped and hindered each other’s investigation. The highlight of which was their handcuffed motorcycle jaunt.
Riding a stolen motorcycle through the busy streets of Saigon is never easy. But when you’re handcuffed to your passenger and are pursued by people wanting you dead, the difficulty level escalates exponentially.
The awkward moments added with the chemistry of Brosnan and Yeoh made for a memorable scene, and was certainly the highlight of the film.
Jonathan Pryce was cast as Tomorrow Never Dies main villain, Elliot Carver, and the title was analogous to his new rag ‘Tomorrow’. Carver does his best to create a war between Britain and China, and disrupt the Chinese government before installing his man in place, and then be handed the rights to offer China’s 1.4 billion people their daily news.
He’s the typical megalomaniac, and all he wants is more power and money. He’s a man of slight build, but with so much money, he can buy all the muscle he needs.
Pryce plays the part very well, and from a man who believes ‘the distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success’. He’s certainly a success, at least until Bond is onto him.
Teri Hatcher plays Elliot Carver’s trophy wife, Paris Carver, who just so happens to be Bond’s former lover. Bond is given the greenlight by M to ‘pump her for information.’ Of course he does, and she gives him all the information he needs via a slap in public for his non-showing all those years ago.
Teri Hatcher was regularly voted the world’s sexiest woman back then, so it seems apt that she should become a Bond girl. She only played a small part in the film, but it was enough to drive Bond to drink a bit too much and for her to get killed by her hubby.
Watch a Pierce Brosnan interview for Tomorrow Never Dies
Götz Otto was cast as carver’s henchman, Richard Stamper, in Tomorrow Never Dies. Otto got the job by telling producers, he’s ‘big and bad and German’. Just what the doctor ordered for a Bond villain based in Hamburg.
The Ivan Drago lookalike was very convincing and played a mean part – no pun intended. He’s skilled in the art of Chakra torture, and wants to beat the world record of 52 hours with Bond.
He never gets the chance, but he’s a constant threat to Bond, in a similar way to Andreas Wisniewski as Necros in The Living Daylights cast.
American magician Ricky Jay played Henry Gupta, an American ‘techno-terrorist’ who’s the IT brains behind Carver’s plan. Jay offers enough in the film to be remembered, and his death at the hands of his greedy boss at the end is a little somewhat unfair.
Vincent Schiavelli played Dr. Kaufman, a professional assassin who’s used by Elliot Carver. Schiavelli always had that madman look, and after killing Paris Carver, it was only the security on Bond’s BMW 750i that made him think twice before killing Bond.
Giving Bond a second chance is always a foolish move, and Kaufman was quickly disposed of, but Vincent Schiavelli will always be remembered for playing a great assassin who naturally loved his job.
Judi Dench played M for the second time. A big thing was made out of M being a woman by the general public and the producers. They used the debate to their advantage, and brought it up a few times in her first two films.
It was her pre-title sequence argument with Admiral Roebuck, played by Geoffrey Palmer that offered the best put down in the film and settled the debate as to whether M’s genitalia was important or not.
Roebuck tells the under pressure M, ‘With all due respect, M, sometimes I don’t think you have the balls for this job.’
If you’re going to criticise, don’t fire it at a woman with the sharp wit as Judi Dench. Her quick fire response: ‘Perhaps. But the advantage is, I don’t have to think with them all the time.’ Has to go down as one of the best retorts of all time, and cemented her place as the head of MI6.
All in all, the Tomorrow Never Dies cast offered a blend of high intensity and confused chemistry. The film won’t be many people’s best Bond film, but with many great scenes, it’s definitely worth rewatching.
Watch the official Tomorrow Never Dies trailer
The Rest of Tomorrow Never Dies Cast and Crew
Julian Fellowes as the British Minister of Defence
Cecilie Thomsen as Inga Bergstrom
Nina Young as Tamara Steel
Colin Stinton as Dr. Dave Greenwalt
Michael Byrne as Admiral Kelly
Terence Rigby as Russian Army General Bukharin
Christopher Bowen as HMS Devonshire Commander Richard Day
Gerard Butler as Devonshire crewman
Julian Rhind-Tutt as Devonshire crewman
Pip Torrens as captain of the naval task force’s lead ship HMS Bedford
Hugh Bonneville as Bedford crewman
Jason Watkins as Bedford crewman
Daphne Deckers as a Carver Media Group PR representative.
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli
Written by Bruce Feirstein
Based on James Bond by Ian Fleming
Cinematography by Robert Elswit
Edited by Michel Arcand and Dominique Fortin
Music by David Arnold
Bond theme song sung by Sheryl Crow
Production companies: Eon Productions and United Artists
Distributed by MGM Distribution Co. (USA), United International Pictures (International)
Release dates: 9 December 1997 (London premiere), 12 December 1997 (UK), 19 December 1997 (USA)
Budget: $110 million
Box office: $333 million