Why did Timothy Dalton not want to play James Bond anymore?

Answer 1

A number of factors lead to Dalton's abandoning the role. First of all, Moonraker had been so expensive that the budget for subsequent Bond films was cut with every new production. Licence to Kill had the lowest budget for a Bond film since the late 1960s/early 1970s, even after you adjust for inflation. Licence to Kill also had the lowest box office returns of a Bond film since the early 1960s. MGM was hesitant to greenlight a third project with Timothy Dalton, and were willing to do so only by cutting the budget further from the $32,000,000 of Licence to Kill. Adding to the troubles was the fact that the new CEO of MGM apparently disliked Dalton and offered to give EON Productions the budget they wanted if they would replace Dalton; EON, however, refused this offer. At around the same time as EON was beginning pre-production on a third Dalton outing, MGM/UA was bought out by an Australian company, who illegally sold television rights of the Bond films to a French company. The following court case severely delayed production until late 1993/early 1994 at which point Timothy Dalton's contract with EON had expired. Even after his contract ran out, however, Dalton was still the Bond "of record", meaning he would be given the opportunity to play Bond first, and if he turned it down EON would seek a new actor to be contracted. Not long after his contract ran out, Dalton received the first draft of the script for GoldenEye and disliked it. During the long gap of legal wrangling, Dalton did several television appearances and theatre productions, as well. Basically, Timothy Dalton didn't like the script for GoldenEye and had already moved on to other work which he found more enjoyable.

Answer 2

Roger Moore felt he became too old for the role, and retired from playing Bond in 1985. By the time he was in A View to a Kill, he was 58.