No time to die’s third trailer has dropped and has given us another glimpse into what we can expect to see in October, so we thought we would take a look back at the roster to see how we got here, so ranking in order here are Let’s Talk Movies The Top 7 James Bond Actors Ranked.
7. George Lazenby
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), he was 29 when he was cast. The burly Australian barged into the franchise for film No. 6, made a meal of it, and then exited. Producer Broccoli spotted Lazenby at the barber at London’s Dorchester Hotel.
Having lost Connery to another role, Broccoli thought Lazenby, a handsome model with little experience acting other than commercials, might be a good replacement. Lazenby’s confidence turned into arrogance, and he soon lost the producers’ trust. Lazenby’s career has never recovered from that initial blow and the movie was trashed by critics.
6. David Niven
READ NEXT: 7 Horror Movies You Won’t Believe Are Based On True Stories
In addition to sharing a military stint with Connery, debonair raconteur David Niven is known more for his witty Hollywood memoirs than for his largely second-string Hollywood career.
The son of James David Graham Niven, he enlisted in the British Army and was gazetted a second lieutenant with the Highland Light Infantry. Thanks to his English charm, he was cast in many supporting roles after leaving the army. In 1958, for Separate Tables, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor.
The only Bond film not produced by Broccoli and Saltzman-owned Eon Productions was Niven’s. Niven played Bond when he was 56 years old.
5. Roger Moore
The Top 7 James Bond Actors Ranked
Was technically the first trained actor to play Bond. Sir Roger George Moore attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for two months, but only briefly. He then left to look for work as an actor.
It is worth noting that Lazenby too had done modelling stints, but he had accomplished some minor acting roles in film and television before taking on the role of Bond in 1973. In the history of the Bond films, Moore is the longest serving Bond actor, having played the character for 12 years before he gave up the role to another actor. Having served seven films under the belt of his safari jacket, he is the longest-serving superspy on this roster. The problem is that not all of them are good (and this is where Octopussy comes into play).
However, we will say one thing about Roger Moore’s portrayal of 007; he was very consistent. A big congrats to the Englishman, who chose a way to play it, and stayed true to his guns throughout. But we are prepared to say that despite the fact that Rodger is the Australian Bond, he is the silliest Bond you could imagine, with the endless quips and the silly gadgets, we think that they may have detracted from the storylines… which were also at best mediocre.
4. Timothy Dalton
READ NEXT: The 7 Highest Grossing Box Office Movies Of All Time
Timothy Peter Dalton was the most serious ‘actorly’ Bond to be cast. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Dalton had been approached to play Bond after Connery quit, but felt too young at age 22 to do the role justice. It’s no wonder that when he was approached for the role again in 1987, he said yes and he took upon himself the role with a grittier approach than Moore’s easy-going, wisecracking style.
In Dalton’s case, he suffered the opposite of Lazenby, whereas in Ozzy’s case, he was a bad Bond in a good movie, and we feel he was a great Bond in two average to great movies. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was a backup candidate. Like Lazenby (who was chosen after Roger Moore’s television commitments got in the way of his selection), Dalton was selected solely for the reason that Pierce Brosnan’s Remington Steele was renewed for another season. In addition, it should be noted that Dalton’s two turns do have an air of consolation prize about them.
3. Pierce Brosnan
READ NEXT: The Seven Greatest Superhero Movies of all Time Ranked!
As a television star, thanks to the hit series Remington Steele (1982 – 1987), he was already a natural fit for the role of Bond, and indeed fans clamoured for his casting.
While NBC was discussing casting him as Bond in 1986, it suddenly reversed its decision to cancel Remington Steele and renewed it for a fifth season. It is also insulting to add insult to injury that Remington Steele’s last season on television was a truncated one, with only six hours of episodes instead of the usual 22. This was in addition to messing up Brosnan’s chances to become Bond. It was not until the mid-1990s that Brosnan finally took on the role, however.
There isn’t a more chiselled Bond to be found on this album. There’s no doubt that he is the man who most closely matches Fleming’s physical description in the manuscript. He has a physique that is between that of Moore, who has no muscle, and that of Craig, who has a superhero physique. Even the worst of the kill lines he delivers (“They will print anything these days,” after throwing a man into a newspaper press springs to mind) somehow work thanks to his delivery. Just don’t think too hard about that invisible Aston Martin.
2. Daniel Craig
Who Will Be The Next James Bond?
In addition to bringing back the sexy to Bond, Daniel Craig also added a gritty menace and an emotional weight to the character. Watching Daniel Craig’s four films, you would not only see a cognitive series of films perhaps for the first time in James Bond history, but also a 50% hit rate – we are all hoping to tip the scales with no time to die. Nevertheless, we can only include Skyfall and Casino Royale for now.
Craig’s portrayal of the super spy is almost too real. Bond needs to have more escapism than what we see in Craig’s debut film, which is a fairly straight adaptation of Fleming’s first Bond novel. In Skyfall, do you remember the scene in which Bond jumps on the back of a Komodo dragon to escape the enclosure, flirts with Moneypenny, and quips “Put it all on red!red!red! I say!” in the space of 20 seconds?
That’s the tone we’re going for. If Craig showed more of that, he would be the perfect Bond.
1. Sean Connery
[…] The Top 7 James Bond Actors Ranked […]
[…] Next James Bond, is the question everyone wants the answer to. Following the release of No Time to Die, Daniel […]