Favorite Bond actor

[Orac Zen]

I'm not a big fan of Casino Royale but it's light years ahead of any of the Moore abominations. IMHO, of course.

[Hermiod]

Orac Zen wrote:

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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.

[Aragorn]

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.

[Gov Kodos]

Connery, Sean Connery

[Good Will Riker]

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.

[Lonemagpie]

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

[MyCylon]

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.

[Niorah]

Sean Connery -is- James Bond. Accept no substitutes.

[Mutenroshi]

I'm gonna be booed, but I chose Lazenby!

[Captaindemotion]

^ 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).

[TheArsenal]

Connery by a good measure.

Craig and Brosnan are battling it out for the second spot.

[Armus]

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.

[Rabittooth]

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

[KB24]

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.

[Siwilliams]

Pierce Brosnan - The World Is Not Enough, Best. Bond. Movie. Ever