I am almost afraid to do this, but I heard that fans were picketing the new "James Blonde" and threatening to "boycott" the film. So who is really the best (or rather your favorite)?

Sean Connery : Trivia : Ian Fleming did not want him for the role, feeling he was not sophisticated enough.

George Lazenby : Trivia : He was a model, not an actor.

Roger Moore : Trivia : Ian Fleming wanted him to play the role from the beginning but his contract as "the Saint" kept him from being in Dr. No.

Timothy Dalton : Trivia : He auditioned before Roger Moore but felt that he was too young at the time.

Pierce Brosnan : Trivia : He wanted the role before Timothy Dalton but his contract with "Remington Steele" prevented it.

I rank them as follows:
Roger Moore
Sean Connery
Timothy Dalton
Pierce Brosnan
George Lazenby


Also, what do you think of the new choice for Bond : Daniel Craig?

For my taste I thought that Sean Connery was the best and that he was best by a country mile. I always thought that Roger Moore brought an air of male model to the role, I don't mean that disrespectfully, he just didn't seem manly enough for the part but having said that I still think that he managed to be entertaining as Bond, I just didn't see him as an RN Commander whereas I found Connery completely convincing. It's very interesting that Ian Fleming thought that Moore was the right one for the role, he was obviously happy to see Moore as Bond. I don't know whether or not Daniel Craig will be a success as Bond but, having seen him in quite a few things. I do know that he is an excellent actor.

Hi there! :wave1:

Sean Connery is, and always shall be, the ONE and ONLY James Bond!!!:)

Mark

I picked Timothy Dalton b/c he's just my favorite out of those men in general. Apparently, from what I've heard, they wanted him to originally play Bond, but he declined b/c he thought he was too young. So, Connery got to play him instead. Ironic that he got to play him later.

Aren't you missing a choice? David Niven from Casino Royale? :laugh: Apparently, he was offered the role of Bond in the real Bond movies, but he declined. Then, I guess he wanted to play him in the comedy.

Anyway, I'm not really that big on James Bond. I haven't seen that many of them. . . to me, it gets kind of old after a while. The plot always seems to be the same sort of set-up. . . and usually the girls are just there to make Bond look like the perfect ladies' man.

I think Daniel Craig is a pretty good choice for the next Bond, btw.

Actually, he was picked before Roger Moore, but not before Sean Connery. He would have been a teenager back then!

I am glad to see that somebody liked Dalton. I think that Dalton is a fine actor and he too often gets blamed for the atrocious License to Kill, but it is not like he wrote the script and people seem to forget The Living Daylights in which Dalton was superb.

Part of me wanted to rank Dalton second behind Moore, but I figured I would be banned from the group if I didn't at least make Connery number two! <_<

I too picked Timothy Dalton. IMO, he has just the right amount of sexiness, charm, and acting abilities to make him perfectly fit for this role. Anyway, I'm not too much into the James Bond saga; these films get tiresome and repetitive after you've seen several of them.

Connery for me. His portrayal was best and he happened to be around for the best movies in the series before the formula became tired and predictable. I grew up with Roger Moore's portrayal and he made a couple of reasonable ones in the 70s but increasingly the Bond movies became like anthologies of past successes.

Timothy Dalton wasn't at all bad in the role. I don't agree that License to Kill (1989) was atrocious, I remember seeing that in the cinema and thinking it was quite good. It appears to have a mixed reputation among fans of the movies because it did increase the violence and had a harder edge than some of them. Possibly as well the five year hiatus in the series which followed means it gets a bad rap. It did try something different at least, perhaps the timing was simply wrong and the fans didn't want the series to change.

I am a huge Bond fan. I remember my Mom and Dad taking us to the drive-in theater when I was a kid to see a Bond double feature. They showed Thunderball and Goldfinger. I believe Thunderball was the current release at the time. Ever since then I have been a big Bond fan and also a fan of spy films in general.

I know that the films are somewhat predictable and there is a formula to Bond movies but that to me is part of the charm. I own all 20 films and every Bond book ever written, from Ian Fleming to John Gardner to Raymond Benson. Most of the books are very good reads and only have mild similarities to the movies. Ian Fleming's Bond was a much darker person than the early movies portrayed him to be. The closest that the franchise has come to Fleming's Bond is with Timothy Dalton. Because I love the books more than the movies Dalton gets my vote. I think the two films he did were the best of the series. After that I would place Connery, Brosnan, Moore and Lazenby. I can't say I "dislike" any of them but Dalton "was" Bond as Fleming wrote and envisioned him.

I saw the articles about Daniel Craig this week and thought "how ridiculous"! They haven't even seen him as Bond yet. I'm at least willing to give him a chance. My biggest gripe is that they are doing Casino Royale. I would rather they had written a new story than go back and try to adapt Royale to today's audience. I don't see how it will work.





Kevin

Oops, my bad :blush: . . . I only said that b/c I thought I remembered Robert Osborne saying that in his introduction to The Lion in Winter on TCM. I guess I remembered it wrongly. Sorry.

Well, the problem with License to Kill was not only how violent and unpleasant it was, but the fact that it looked like a reject from a Charles Bronson script. It was a vendetta script, not a spy script. Having said that, I do with that Dalton had returned for Goldeneye as he was asked to do, but I don't really blame him for retiring either. I did love The Living Daylights, but on the whole I loved the more lighthearted Bonds of Roger Moore.

Another question might be who is the best of the early directors. Only five directors worked on the Bonds up until Brosnan.


Terence Young
Lewis Gilbert
Guy Hamilton
John Glen

My favorite was Guy Hamilton who was responcible for Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, and Man with the Golden Gun.

For the records, Young did Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Thunderball.

Gilbert did You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker.

Glen did all the others except for On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I wonder what exactly are the objections to Daniel Craig being the next Bond ? I would have thought that as far as the role requirements are concerned he ticks just about every box. He is the right age, mature but youthful, very good looking with the right amount of ruggedness, looks worldly and experienced, has all the acting ability to convince anyone that he is an iron fist in a velvet glove. On top of all this he is a marvellous actor, I doubt if they could have made a better choice.

Some of the things written about Daniel Craig are ridiculous. The character of Bond is in the mind of the reader, and that will never fit into a cinematic equivalent. I really hope Daniel Craig does a great job in the role and shuts the morons who insisit on demonising him up, he probably lacks Connery's charisma, but is certainly a better actor than the other Bond's, he's also 37 and fit's beautifully into Bradmans description.

Anyway, to answer the question, best Bond is predictably Sean Connery, he had the looks, charisma, humour that the role demanded, the only drawback was he wasn't the brightest Bond (definately a brawn over brains character), but that had more to do with the period the movies were made than Connery's abilities as an actor.

Sean Connery was definitely my favorite, but I was the perfect age to enjoy those films when they came out in the 1960's. But also, I think Connery is a better actor than any of the later Bonds. Plus, Those films were just better. I will admit I haven't seen all of them, but Connery was Bond. B)

Connery, Sean Connery
'nuf said....

Connery, not just because he was the first, but he brought a certain suave yet dark edge to the character that hasn't been matched yet. More to the point, he brought depth to a persona that could easily have been shallow and predictable. He had authority as an actor, something Roger Moore and others who followed(despite valiant attempts)simply didn't possess. He also had no real past baggage, having been somewhat successful as an actor, but with no significant roles we could reference. (This is also true of Lazenby, but for obvious and laughable reasons!)

The others did well if you don't mind a 'lighter Bond.' I found Dalton peevish and lacking, while Brosnan was good but he had REMINGTON STEELE as baggage, and he didn't seem that much different from his TV persona.

Since I've seen all the Bond films many times, I'll give this new guy a chance, of course. But it could be that the series should finally, like Star Trek, wind down and go off into screen history. Or so I hope!

:ed:

Once again I'm going to be the freak and say Pierce Brosnan. Not that I like the movies that he made was Bond better than say Sean Connery, but I think he fits the image of Bond better. But as always that's just my opinion.

Lucky me, to have seen all these men, play Bond.

Then or Now. Sean Connery, is my only choice. His good looks and great voice, add to his charm. He was more than Bond. A great actor. Like his movies.....he gets better with age. :wub: Yes. :clap:

Sean Connery with no hesitation.

Even if one of my favourite Bond movie is On Her Majesty's Secret Service, I never thought that Lazenby was a great Bond.

Roger Moore was the Bond I grew up with, so he's kinda nostalgic to me. And the last two, Dalton and Brosnan, are same as the film they are playing in, just fun.

Sean Connery in my mind is the best Bond. First saw him in Goldfinger. Then went back to see Dr. No. Always went when he was Bond. After him I kind of dropped it.

The best Bond girl - Honor Blackman.....hands down. And what a name for a character - Pussy Galore. In that day, it was shocking.

dickson

My absolute fav is Moore , I think the ridicule he receives is grossly unfair in that he never took the character seriously e.g. the idea that he was a spy and yet every bartender , croupier in the world recognised him instantly and even knew what he drank etc. Moore found this very funny and played the chacter reflecting that . There were times in The Spy Who Loved Me in scenes with Barbara Bach discussing the death of her lover that he emanated a lot depth , also a cold streak in For Your Eyes Only . I never really hear anybody remark upon this so I thought I would . P.S before Daniel Craig's attachment to the franchise Moore was also the ONLY Englishman to play the role

Finally! I knew Connery would be number one but I am shocked that Moore has only gotten two votes! He played Bond more times than anyone, and they wouldn't have kept asking him back if he hadn't been successful. By the way, do y'all realize that before the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening up of massive new markets in Russia, the highest grossing Bonds were all Roger Moores. Granted, Goldfinger and Thunderball would still be one and two based on ticket sales, but the point is made.

Also remember, Roger Moore was the man Ian Flemming wanted to play the role!

i thot Connery was just sexy especially as he got older. also since i was prolly not even 30 when this Bond craze started i just "grew up" with Connery and really had a hard time wanting anyone else. as the years went by i kind of stopped watching those movies but i did think that Timothy Dalton was a sexy bugger in his day. and Pierce Brosnan also was gorgeous. but i really didn't follow them as Bond. i'd see them in other stuff.

anyway i did vote for Connery.

bon

No surprise at the result: Connery will always be James Bond, and not just because he was the first....

ED B)

Except for "Dr. No", I'm not really a Bond fan much. But I picked Sean Connery. My question, though, is: what about Ward? :D

Who was the best James Bond?

There are some subjects that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, and this is one of them.

Dan N.

http://www.silentfilmguide.com

I have edited this poll to now include Daniel Craig. Who, if he had been a choice I may have casted my vote for but Casino Royale had not been released when the poll was started.

Kevin

It's also interesting that George Lazenby hasn't garnered a vote. Yeah, he was a male model, not much of an actor, and only did the gig once. Yet he seemed to me a more honest Bond than any who came after, if not as charismatic and suave as Connery. I mean, Roger Moore?!? In Ian Fleming's books, Bond was many things, but not a fop! Part of Bond's appeal was his sexual magnetism, which Moore simply didn't possess the way Connery did(and to a degree, Brosnan, too).

ED B)

I wouldn't be a big Bond fan at all, but I voted for Connery because I really like From Russia With Love. It's certainly the only one I've watched all the way through more than once. I'm pleased EMB has mentioned George Lazenby though, as On Her Majesty's Secret Service is probably my second favourite, but people are forever telling me "Well, Lazenby's not a real Bond you know"! ^_^

To me Lazenby was the beginning of the tongue in cheek approach to Bond that came to fullness during the Moore years. Even if OHMSS did end tragically. And as fas as Moore not being charismatic and sexy there must be some who disagree with you as Ed because he has garnered four votes even on this board. I think many women did find him kind of sexy and he certainly had star appeal from The Saint series and a following that followed him right into the Bond films. He's not my favorite at all but he's not at the bottom of the list for me either.

Kevin

I know that some die hard fans loath Roger Moore, but there are several things to think about before deriding the "tongue in cheek" approach. First, Ian Fleming himself originally wanted Roger Moore for the role. If Ian thought Roger would make a good Bond, I think it is a little harsh to say that he is THAT different from what Ian's character was. Now it is true that the books are much more serious and dark than Roger Moore, but if want the books, read them. Remember, the "tongue in cheek" actually began with Sean Connery in Goldfinger and continued in Diamonds are Forever.

After OHMSS the Broccoli family was afraid that the franchise was getting tired which is why they paid a bundle to bring Connery back, but Roger Moore literally saved Bond from extinction. Live and Let Die was a huge hit and, lets face it, by the seventh and eighth movie how seriously can you take Bond when he pretends like he is going to die. Of course he isn't! Roger Moore is my favorite Bond and The Spy Who Loved Me is my favorite Bond film. The only Moore film I really didn't like was the only one where they tried to play it Connery style (For Your Eyes Only). Each Bond has his own persona and shold stick to that persona. Attempting to imitate another Bond is fatal. That is part of the key to Bond's success.

He has changed with the times. Connery was the anti-hero of the 60s, Moore was the "feel good" Bond of the 70s era when the world was still in a hangover from the 60s. Dalton brought a seriousness back to Bond, but with a romantic quality lacking in the previous Bonds. In the 90s Brosnan turned Bond into a pure "adrenaline rush" action film (sometimes to extremes)) and Craig is now trying to return to the serious mode. It seems that Bond is a pendulum to an extent and the pendulum is now back to dramatic and serious. I suspect that Craig's eventual replacement will be less so.