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Question for those older folks. Was Robert Brown considered a well-known actor hire as M at the time or did he benefit from appearing as Admiral Hargreaves? I was already familiar with RF's impressive body of work prior to SF. Then again, we have that powerful resource known as the world wide web today that provides info galore.
No. I think that's where 'Skyfall' stands out from the previous Bond films. In the 'Cubby'-days, casting directors were told not to hire big star names. You saw what happened with George Lazenby. I think this fear was always a bit part of the franchise. According to Cubby, the real star was James Bond, NOT the actor.
With 'Skyfall' this changed considerably. James Bond can now be connected with big star names as Javier Bardem, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney and Judi Dench. And perhaps names like Christoph Waltz, Philip Seymour-Hoffman, Tilda Swinton...to name a few. Also, look to the main titles of the film. After Daniel Craig, actor Javier Bardem is the first actor to be mentioned. Usually, in previous Bond films, the female leading Bond girl was the first actor that was mentioned after the word 'starring...'.
Compare....
with.....
Star power is finally something the Bond producers aren't afraid of anymore. Starpower can actually sell a Bond film perfectly, both quality-wise as marketing-wise.
Coming back to your inital question. I think Robert Brown never was a big actor. At least he did not have the starpower Ralph Fiennes has.