The Complete Biography of Cassandra Harris (Part 4)

Please See Parts 1-3:

• The Complete Biography of Cassandra Harris (Part 1)
• The Complete Biography of Cassandra Harris (Part 2)
• The Complete Biography of Cassandra Harris (Part 3)

Officially Bonded

Pierce Brosnan's performance in Manions of America landed him a role in a production of Nancy Astor, a costume drama collaboration between BBC and Time-Life Productions. This piece, as the title suggests, told the story of Nancy Longhorne -- later Astor -- who was the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. "Manions and Nancy Astor proved his big stepping stone," Cassandra then said.

Though still nowhere near a sustainable living, Brosnan's new projects plus Cassandra's role in For Your Eyes Only left the couple hopeful, as it allowed for a few things that in the past had seemed out of reach.

During an era when, according to Cassandra, "marriage didn't seem that important if one had a good relationship," she and Brosnan decided to tie the knot, something they had postponed to allow Cassandra to film For Your Eyes Only. They had been together for eighteen months. "We saw nothing wrong with our arrangement. We were in love. We loved our children," she said.

For Pierce, his "Catholic morality" was a catalyst for the nuptials. Of the occasion, he stated, "We could have gone on living together, but we didn't want any loose ends."

Ultimately, despite her awareness of the growing paperless culture, marriage had been equally important to Cassandra. "I do think being married matters. We both think so," she told TV Times a year prior.

The ceremony took place on December 27, 1980, at King's Road Registry Office in Chelsea, which had long been the scene for many showbusiness and high society weddings. Ian Fleming, it turns out, completed his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, just a few streets away in Carlyle Mansions on Cheyne Walk, with Chelsea written as the fictional home of 007 himself.

Pierce donned a fawn-colored suit with Cassandra, stunning as ever, in a matching skirt and top. The two children were in their best outfits.

The following day, Sunday People ran a picture story on the wedding. Brosnan was 27, with Cassandra said to have been 30 in the caption. In reality, however, she was over a decade older than her husband, at 39,

Cassandra would later reflect on that eventful year, highlighted by both her new "Bond Girl" status and her marriage. "Kissing Roger Moore was hot stuff, just as you'd expect kissing James Bond to be," she said. "But it still wasn't a patch on kissing Pierce."

Though it was no immediate concern of her husband's, Cassandra secretly hoped that Pierce himself would one day play James Bond. In the meantime, however, her focus remained on what lay ahead.

The American Dream

The proceeds from the couple's recent undertakings had also allowed them to buy their first house, a large and terraced Victorian, in Wimbledon's Merton Park. It was a fixer-upper in foreclosure with little inside but old, damp wallpaper. "It was pretty run down," recalled Brosnan. "But it was magic."

Initially, the family lived on the floorboards and began the daunting task of restoring the property to its former glories. They stripped the wallpapaer, sanded surfaces, repainted the fireplaces, and knocked down walls. "We did it ourselves. We had no money for all that sort of work," revealed Pierce in Cigar Aficionado in 1997.

Little did the couple know, a different strain of magic was in the making. Manions of America was premiering in the U.S. on the ABC network, and Cassandra suggested they make a bold move: fly to the New World for the event.

While the idea intrigued her new husband, money was again too scarce, or so it seemed.

"But how are we going to get to Los Angeles, Cassie?" he contested. "We don't have any money. We've just bought the bloody house. How are we going to pay the mortgage? She said, 'I'll think of a way.'"

It is unclear how much Brosnan knew about the storytelling and truth stretching of Cassandra's past. But at this point, it was to serve a greater purpose, and the gamble was huge.

"So we took out a second mortgage on the central heating," Brosnan explained. "We already had central heating in the house, but she found a loophole."

The couple proceeded to their bank manager, claiming they had jobs waiting for them across the pond, and asked for a £2,000 loan. "The central heating issue came in and we got the two grand," he said.

Brosnan's agent lined up a Hollywood contact and the couple flew out to Los Angeles with lunches packed in paper bags. They rented a lime green AMC Pacer from Rent-a-Wreck, where one could rent an old banger for next to nothing. With a banged up wing and a cushion on the seat because springs were popping through the upholstery, it was hardly an upgrade from the old Ford Anglia. Nonetheless, their excitement was unshakeable.

"The trip to America, it was such a great joy to go there with Cassie," Brosnan recalled years later, "to take that leap of faith and go to the New World -- all that nonsense you read about in books." While he had admitted to initially not wanting to take the risk, it was Cassandra's persuasion that made him reconsider. "Cassie has a great sense of adventure and encouraged me to go."

Pierce and Cassandra had lined up as many interviews as they could squeeze into their two-week excursion. It turned out, however, that Pierce only needed one.

Woman of Steele

While in Los Angeles, Pierce Brosnan learned that producers were still looking for someone to play the title role in a spoof detective series called Remington Steele. He put in a call, and his work in Manions of America secured him an audition.

The series of Remington Steele featured private investigator Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist), who opens a detective agency and finds it difficult to attract clients as a female proprietor. She re-names her agency "Remington Steele," after a fake boss she invents, and business booms. Clients soon want to meet the super sleuth whose name is on the door, a role fulfilled when a handsome man with a mysterious past comes along whom Laura feels can pass as her ersatz boss. He bumbles at first, but learns the private eye trade very quickly.

"The last thing I was looking for was a TV series," said Brosnan of the opportunity. "... I was going to do movies. But I needed work. I went through several more interviews and then Cassie and I went home to Wimbledon. Then the call came: would I return for a screen test?"

What was originally going to be another two-week stint in Los Angeles to film a pilot plus six episodes turned into something more. Following the private screening, network bosses sensed that Remington Steele had all the makings of a hit show. It was lightweight and easy to watch while combining two major obsessions of the Western world -- money and glamor -- and MTM gave the go-ahead to make it an entire series.

Pierce booked into Hollywood's luxurious Chateau Marmont and looked for a house. Cassandra and the children soon joined him. For once, money was the least of their worries, but it also became evident that the pursuit of Hollywood glory was not so glamorous beyond the exterior. Filming just one episode of Remington was a 7-day grind, with a total of 22 episodes scheduled per season. "My family rarely saw me during the first year," Brosnan would reveal to Cigar Aficionado in 1997. In a Celebrity Profile feature for the E! Network in 2001, he also recalled, "It was also very frightening because I'd never worked at such a fast pace."

Through it all, Cassandra was never far from his side. Make-up artist Bron Roylance, who went on to become a close friend of the couple, recalled her visits to the set of Remington Steele in E!'s Celebrity Profile. "She said, 'Oh don't go play it that way! Just be yourself -- your goofy self -- just like you are at home,'" said Roylance. "And he changed the way he played that character from a result of that, and he could see the success. And blame it on Cassie."

Cassandra herself would return to the small screen to guest-star as an old flame of Remington Steele. She also once again found herself a target for magazines and newspapers, this time as half of "the most committed couple in Hollywood" alongside her husband. Both were young, attractive, fashionable, and embodied wholesome family values. And unlike Dermot Harris before him, Pierce Brosnan was untouched by any sort of scandal or controversy.

One of the first of a multitude of articles featuring the couple appeared in the Daily Mail in the summer of 1982. It was a fashion spread headlined, There Isn't A Smarter Act to Follow.

Cassandra, along with Pierce, was pictured in a variety of summer outfits. She told how she favored "cool blues, whites, creams in sheer georgette," and soft cotton or easy sweatshirt fabrics in the summer. Meanwhile Brosnan quipped, "Cassandra prefers me in well-cut slacks, maybe a tie and jacket -- smarter than just jeans."

Soon dubbed the showbusiness world's "most glamorous young couple," Pierce and Cassandra would find themselves in page after page of squeaky-clean picture spreads in various magazines, documenting the latest in their celebrity lives.

As for Remington Steele, the show was a runaway success, just as the network had predicted. Though part of its appeal was Brosnan's natural good looks, it was not an element he met with the best of enthusiasm. "It's nice to get attention from fans," he told UK's Evening Post in 1984, "but there's only one woman in my life and that's Cassie. She's been a great source of strength to me in my career and I don't know what I would have done without her."

Brosnan would elaborate on that sentiment in an interview with Ladies Home Journal in 1985. "She's far superior to me," he said, " a fine actress, a woman of great inner strength. I'm a great believer in fate, that certain things were meant to be, and when I saw this beautiful, fantastic lady I fell madly in love for the first time."

His grueling schedule filming Remington forced the couple to make the most of their time together. "We make sure to have lunch two or three times a week on the set," said Cassandra. "And if he'd working late, the kids and I go down on location."

And whenever he was home?

"Everything goes out the window when he gets home," she explained. "No one's allowed to do anything. Our family and each other come first. If Remington Steele got in the way of all that, we'd give it up and go live on a sheep farm."

As things stood, however, both Cassandra and Pierce were like "little children" over their new lifestyle, marveling about how much they had so soon.