Timothy Dalton in the film "Lady Caroline Lamb". The filmmakers replaced him with Jon Finch at the last moment; Dalton sued for breach of contract and won an out-of-court settlement. In 1985, Dalton was set to play Don Alfonso de la Torré in Roman Polanski's film "Pirates". The two men did not get along, so Polanski replaced Dalton with Damien Thomas. Dalton had been considered for the role of James Bond several times. According to the documentary "Inside The Living Daylights", the producers first approached Dalton in 1968 for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" although Dalton himself in this same documentary claims
Timothy Dalton the approach occurred when he was either 24 or 25 and had already done the film "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971). Dalton told the producers that he was too young for the role. In a 1987 interview, Dalton said, "Originally I did not want to take over from Sean Connery. He was far too good, he was wonderful. I was about 24 or 25, which is too young. But when you've seen Bond from the beginning, you don't take over from Sean Connery." In either 1979 or 1980, he was approached again, but did not favour the direction the films