1- Connery. The first and best. 2- Craig. Fantastic! 3- Brosnan. Gets a nice mixture of Moore-ish charm and Connery-ish deadliness when necessary 4- Moore. I like him a lot, but he's basically still playing Simon Templar. Which is no bad thing, but that's why those three are above him in the James Bond stakes 5- Dalton. Could have been good, and shows flashes of proper Bond, but seems uncomfortable in the role rather than playing a Bond who's uncomfortable with his lot. As a result he seems to waver between playing it like it's vital Shakespearean art, and being embarrassed to be in something so populist. All the same, it's his voice I hear in my head when I read the books. 6- Lazenby. Actually underrated- he looks most like the character, but somebody has to come last. I should point out that these ranks are merely relative to each other. As a whole, I love 'em all
I'm going with Craig. I really enjoyed both CR and QoS immensely, and that's thanks to Craig in no small part. However, really, it's a tie between Craig and Brosnan for me. They play very different Bonds, but I love both of them. However, Brosnan IMHO only had one great movie (TND), so I'm giving Craig the vote here. Connery is next for me and very, very close to the other two. I also really like Moore as Bond, but there's a bit more of a distance. He did have some cool movies, however, that were quite a lot of fun. And he did manage to come across as really charming. I'm not fond of Dalton, to be honest, or Lazenby. They just don't really work as Bond for me. I know that a lot of people say that Dalton is closest to Fleming's Bond. However, since all I have to go on is the movies I can't actually comment on that so it doesn't figure in for me.
^ Boo! 1. Connery. The first and best. Suavest, coolest, toughest BC (before Craig), most attractive to women, most iconic. 2. Craig. I was very much in the doubters camp when he was cast, but was happy to be proven wrong. He kicks ass, plays the character like its a proper role, instead of merely bringing his own personality to the part, is convincing as a cold assassin, yet has a way with a one liner and doesn't look uncomfortable in the love scenes. 3. Brosnan. I was a little unsure of his casting at first (had him down as a tv lightweight, but he did a great job. A populist mix of Connery and Moore, whose performances were frequently better than the scripts or directors he got. 4. Dalton. My liking of his performances has diminished over the years. I used to like him a lot, but I've seen bits of his movies more recently and find his performances somewhat OTT and too self-consciously 'actorly.' Kudos for making a good fist of being a very public second choice and he was a breath of fresh air at the time after the parodic Moore years. But he needed a little more humour and to look a little more relaxed in the love scenes. Perhaps he was the closest to the Bond of the novels, but he should have perhaps followed a little more of the movie template too. I like what he was aiming for, but I think Craig just did it a bit better. 5 & 6. Joint placing for Lazenby and Moore. Lazenby deserves credit for being the first to try to follow the Great Scot and he probably was the all round best looking and toughest looking Bond. And credit for nt just playing Connery, but playing his own version of Bond. The problem was, he was just too wooden and didn't have the acting clout to carry off the humanity that OHMSS required. Perhaps he would have grown into the part. Moore also deserves credit for being the longest serving Bond and for being the first since Connery to manage to play the role twice. And for all the slating of his tongue-in-cheek portrayal, he was playing to his strengths. You can't imagine Roger Moore doing the opening scenes of Casino Royale or the fight with Robert Shaw in FRWL. Best to stick to what he was good at. And to be fair, the lapse of the 007 series into parody and tongue-in-cheek pretty much reflected the trend of the era. In the 1960s, the biggest movie star in the world was Steve McQueen - in the 197s, it was Burt Reynolds. Similar move from intense hard-ass to smirking smoothy. But for all that - I just can't be too interested in his take on 007, despite a few pretty good movies (LALD, TSWLM, FYEO).
James Bond was Sean Connery. Hands down best 007. Roger Moore wasn't physically believable but he was an enjoyable Bond, and his films are my favorites. I would have like to have seen Pierce Brosnan get better scripts. His movies move too fast, have dull villains, too many smarmy lines, and are just too haphazard to get into.
Before Casino Royale, I would have said Connery without batting an eyelash, but man....Craig has sucked me in to his version of Bond. -Rabittooth
I've always preferred Dalton. It's taken almost fifty years for OHMSS to be appreciated, so maybe Dalton will be beloved soon! Now, perhaps.
Agreed. And he's just smoky with economy of means. Fine actor. Probably the most classy Bond. I mean, weeks ago, I saw Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona at the movies, where virile latin hot stuff Javier Bardem had romance with Scarlett Johansson (and particularly, fresh face Rebecca Hall); and I liked the movie, but no thrill. Then I saw The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton again, in bad conditions, but the ferris wheel scene had more effect on me than the whole aforementioned movie. I have to agree here too.
Daniel Craig. Sure Pierce Brosnan looks the part but DC can actually beat up someone and seem believable.
1. Dalton (shame he didn't get more films and scripts that better suited his drier sense of humour) 2. Craig (he's getting increasingly close to Dalton however, ironic given I was one of those who hated his casting!) 3. Moore/Brosnan (really can't decide between them, Brosnan slips for being an amalgam Bond rather than brining anything new to the role, but picks up bonus points for being so obviously thrilled to bits to be playing Bond, his boyish glee is infectious) 5. Lazenby (The perfect Bond for OHMSS, thank Christ Connery didn't do it) 6. Connery (I honestly find his Bond the least likeable and the least empathetic.)