This has probably been done before, but I haven't seen it lately. I'd considered doing this as a Hurt/Heal for awhile, but figured it was better suited to a simple poll. So have at it! Me, I've gotta show a little love for Dalton. His Fleming-centric approach was most appreciated by me after the opposite extreme of the Moore years.
Sean Connery by a mile. I think he was perfect in the part. By far the most charming, and believable as a tough guy who could be a real cold hearted bastard at times. The films he was in struck just the right tone between silly and serious.
As stated in the OP, there hasn't been a H/H game on this topic. As for polls and such, a search reveals that there was a "Rank the 6 James Bond actors" thread back from February through April, but I would have missed that as I was on a hiatus from the BBS then.
Connery has the magic, but Dalton is much closer to Bond in the later books (and in the novel of CR, the first one.) Nobody else really matters, since Brosnan only got to do Bond properly in TAILOR OF PANAMA which don't count.
Dalton. Dudes, he was in Flash Gordon!!!!!!!! And Craig is a very close second. In fact, I'd peel those Speedos off in a nanosecond....
Connery, then Moore, then Lazenby, then Brosnan, then Dalton and finally, off somewhere in the distance, Craig.
Connery, by a distance. Then Lazenby, Dalton and Brosnan on a par, then Craig. Moore? Good Lord, no. Horrendous.
I'm not a big fan of Casino Royale but it's light years ahead of any of the Moore abominations. IMHO, of course.
The Man With the Golden Gun has Nick Nack. Casino Royale does not. Therefore Craig loses and Moore wins forever.
This will all be rendered meaningless when, in Craig's final Bond film, the men at the very top of Quantum will be played by Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan.
1.) Sean Connery - He was the first and still the best, in my honest opinion. The body, the charm, the humor, the toughness, the charisma. It is all there. Connery is so good that he transcends Bond in terms of being a popular draw all on his own evidenced by his post-Bond successes in The Untouchables, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Rising Sun, The Rock, Finding Forrester, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Okay, that last one bombed...but, he still was the best part of that film.). 2.) Pierece Brosnan - My 2nd favorite. Even when the scripts were bad, he still made a good Bond. 3.) Daniel Craig - My 3rd favorite. He is a versatile actor who is not defined by just one type of role. His participation as Bond can make a good script even stronger (Casino Royale), but given a bad script and he suffers along with the film (Quantum of Solace). 4.) George Lazenby - My 4th favorite. I rank him 4th because I find him more believable as Agent 007 than Roger Moore. He was a great on-screen brawler, and a real life practicioner of the martial arts. You also get a slight "Sean Connery vibe" from him, which is a good thing. 5.) Roger Moore - My 5th favorite. In my opinion, Moore was average as Bond, but on the plus side he is still charming, humorous, and watchable as Bond even in the bad entries. To tell you the truth, none of the Roger Moore 007 films make my Top 10 (I rank The Spy Who Loved Me at #11), but he was serviceable in the role and I praise the real life gentleman for being a goodwill ambassador on behalf of UNICEF. 6.) Timothy Dalton - My least favorite Bond. I want to be honest: The scripts for The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill were terrific, and any actor could have carried those films whether it be Dalton, Brosnan, the return of Roger Moore, or even the non-Bond winner Sean Bean. Dalton just was not charismatic in the role, and he did nothing on screen to draw the viewers in, acting "too serious" in a self-serving performance. His Bond was all serious business with no sense of fun during his missions. I still wonder what it would have been like had Brosnan been Bond from The Living Daylights - Die Another Day in a 15 year run. He certainly would have broken Moore's record for longevity as 007 had that been the case while still being able to retire from the role before the age of 50.