It is a scene that, in its day, set pulses racing in cinemas – Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kissing on a Hawaiian beach in the 1953 film From Here To Eternity.

And, in a passionate clinch worthy of any James Bond film, Pierce Brosnan amply demonstrated last week that anything Burt could do, he could do, too.

His amorous roll in the sand with wife Keely Shaye Smith on the idyllic Hawaiian island of Kauai left onlookers in no doubt about their feelings for each other.

Kiss me quick: Pierce Brosnan and wife Keely on a beach in Hawaii and, below, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's famous 1953 clinch

Brosnan – the 55-year-old former Bond actor whose latest role is in Mamma Mia!, the film version of the hit musical – wore shorts, a shirt and a sunhat as he embraced his wife, who was wearing a black two-piece swimming costume.

He then posed against a fallen tree, with what looked like a script in his hands, pulling a variety of silly faces to entertain Keely and their friends.

With such an openly public display of affection, the actor proved he couldn’t care less about catty remarks made about Ms Shaye Smith’s voluptuous figure on some celebrity websites in recent weeks.

Brosnan married the American TV presenter in 2001 and they have two sons, Dylan and Paris. His first wife, Cassandra Harris, died in 1991.

Time out: The couple sit and read alone after their dramatic embrace

Ms Shaye Smith, 44, quite happily flaunts her body in figure-hugging outfits. She once told Vogue magazine: ‘I never shy away from colours or my curves. I never hide in baggy clothing.’

The couple divide their time between Florida and Hawaii, and Brosnan has spoken of his love for the simple life on Kauai.

‘I live in the most beautiful part of the world now,’ he said.