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Not even Craig? Hmm. I prefer Sean and Rog as Bond, just because they're so confident and effortless in their portrayals (a key aspect of the Bond character in my opinion), but Craig is kind of doubtlessly the best actor to grace the role. Give him a good script and a good supporting cast (ie. CR) and he pulls off some really, really good performances.
Connery and Moore are more of the traditional Bonds - they know their movies aren't Oscars and don't try to do that. They just try to entertain (of course, Connery does come off quite well in terms of the impression he leaves on us "acting-wise"), and don't try to hard to sell their movies to the Oscars.
Also, @Szonana, Moore has been sensitive before. You could say he's one of the coldest Bonds, though, given how he makes humour out of so many deaths and pretty much never laughs in any of his movies. Light-hearted, for sure, but deceptively cold at times.
From Southborne (Bournemouth)
Yes, especially Craig. @DaltonCraig007 has mentioned before about that star quality that both Connery and Moore possess, and I think he is right on the money. I agree that Craig is an exceptional actor, but some of the traits that Craig excels at in his portrayal of Bond isn't necessarily something that I look for when I watch a Bond film. Nobody does it better than Sean and Rog when it comes to humour, for example- Craig succeeds at humour when it is sarcastic, perhaps why I didn't take to his performance in SPECTRE because the humour tailored to Craig doesn't suit his portrayal (although admittedly I did find the "stay" line somewhat amusing). Again, this has been mentioned elsewhere, but that star quality that Connery and Moore have in spades, that screen presence, is unmatched.
Yes, seeing actors playing themselves all the time is often boring to watch, compared to insane acting performances like Heath Ledger in Dark Knight, Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler or De Niro in Taxi Driver. But, very rarely, you get actors of total and absolute charisma, that you can get the same kick in excitement. Moore's and Connery's charisma levels are off the roof, once they pass away I do not believe we will see such triple A certified stars ever again.
I do not know who is the most talented actor of all time, but I certainly know Sean Connery and Roger Moore are the biggest stars Hollywood has seen in the last 50 years.
Also Brosnan is somewhat similar to Moore charm wise in interviews.
Moore is heard laughing at the very end of AVTAK when he's in the shower with Stacey.
Right! Why is he laughing again?
So George is the only Bond not laughing. The serious Bond. The psycho.
I think Stacey is...entertaining him.
Laz doesn't laugh but he has that silly smile during the scene at the bullfight.
Ah right. Part English then. Interesting.
Well yes he had some sensitive moments now that i think so: In the spy who loved me when Anya spoke about his wife( Tracy) he got serious almost sad, he made it seem it was a delicate subject for him.
About real laughing i guess i only watched connery laugh in From Russia with love when he was talking to Kerim Bay about woman and Pierce when he joked with Natalya in bed about not meaning anything to her.
But i guess these were the only times where I remember seen Bond truly laugh.
2) George
3) Roger
4) Pierce
5)Tim
6) Daniel
Sean Connery caused a nuclear meltdown at the end of DN. How many mothers and their toddlers do you think got hurt in the process, considering the blast radius would cover dozens of miles?
Crab Key was pretty far from mainland Jamaica. At most, some fish were irradiated, and that's it...
Also Tim's thoughts on not wearing expensive tailored suits etc, preferring off the peg but the way things look and the brands etc are big thing for Fleming's Bond. Minor quibbles I know.
While I am here, may as well rank:
1. Roger Moore
2. Timothy Dalton
3. Sean Connery
4. Pierce Brosnan
5. Daniel Craig
6. George Lazenby
2. Daniel
3. Timothy
4. Roger
5. George
6. Pierce
1. Timothy Dalton
Great actor in general, absolutely the closest thing to Fleming's Bond onscreen. I love his humanity in his personal interactions with people he cares about, like Kara, Felix, Della, and Sharkey, an aspect often overlooked. He laughs more than the other Bonds, and shows a great deal more warmth as well. But of course, as is more often noticed, he could kill whoever needed to be killed, and he could get roughed up. Until Craig, we never really saw Bond looking as worn out as Tim at the end of LTK.
2. Daniel Craig
Brosnan is often thought of as being some kind of "mix" of Sean, Roger, and Tim, but I think Daniel is actually much closer to that. He has the natural suaveness of Sean and Roger, as well as their humor, and can also show the brutality and humanity on offer from Tim. I don't think he's *quite* as good at any of those components as the others, but he does everything well above average for sure, and in my opinion has yet to play a part in a weak film.
3. Roger Moore
I had to grow up a bit before I could learn to like old Rodge has much as I do now. Sure, his movies got pretty silly, but Roger always understood what kind of movie he was making and played it with a perfect amount of self-awareness. He's just so goddamn likeable. He's sort of an opposite to Tim, in that he's absolutely a "superman". There's no logical reason why he should be able to do what he does, but Roger makes you believe it somehow.
4. George Lazenby
This guy's confidence, fighting ability, and humanity really make me wish we could have seen more of him. He held his own in OHMSS, surrounded by superior actors, which is a remarkable achievement for a non-actor. I think George as a real person just had the overconfidence and fists to naturally move into the role. Hard to judge on the one (kind of outlier) film, but he could have been the best, who knows....
5. Sean Connery
I love Sean. I know fifth is low, but I just love those other four more. Sean has more natural charisma than any of the Bonds, and more than most any actor. I just don't think he brought too much more than his natural coolness and wit, which again, are more than enough to make him an awesome Bond. But from Thunderball on, maybe even in Goldfinger, that was really all he was doing, hanging around being his cool self. It's enough to make DAF watchable, but not enough for me to rank him higher.
6. Pierce Brosnan
Pierce just couldn't bring it, and his scripts did him no favors. He always strikes me not as James Bond, but as a guy playing James Bond. He's playing a guy who's acting like James Bond. The mugging, the smirking, the tie-adjusting, the labored too-cool-for-school attitude--I don't like it at all. And then he brought unneeded melodrama to the series. The pain face, the penchant for sniffing the corpses of women--what is this? I think Pierce was fighting with his scripts, trying to make them more "serious" than they obviously are. If he could have accepted the "Roger Mark II" role on offer in films like TND, he could have done better. As it stands, we kind of have a generic fakey Bond dragging us into radical tonal shifts, smelling Teri Hatcher's dead body and then giggling as he drives a life-size remote control car around. Awful.
Welcome! I love your list and descriptions, especially what you have to say about Dalton, my favourite as well.
I still think he was great, if it wasn't for the media I would have never noticed he wasn't very happy with the Bond he got to play.
While watching the films you can feel he loves being James Bond and enjoyed everything which came with it.
@prof JoeButcher
Woow thats a very interesting ranking I completely disagree with it but i never seen before Sean Connery in fifth place.
i find your arguments a bitt disjointed. You are ok With Roger's silly films and his charming self going all through the 7 films he did but if its Sean Connery it gets tired ?
And well i so disgaree with your thoughts on Pierce Brosnan.
I agree with that. Just bad timing for him I suppose.
No, no, it's not like that. I really truly love those five Bonds. Connery really makes DAF a fun movie pretty much all on his own. And Thunderball I find to be extremely dull, but Sean being his cool self makes it worth watching. I just think Moore's films were more clearly made for him, and that he really dedicated himself more than Sean did, and all the way to the end.
I can almost imagine that Pierce could have done that. He could have been in better films, had he had the chance. But his scripts weren't great, and instead of making his strengths meet the script where it is, I think he tried too hard to overwhelm the scripts with what he wished the scripts were.
But he's certainly a more than capable actor, and could have succeeded in a grittier take on the series. This is all just my opinion anyway, but I don't mean to insult his skills as an actor.
Actually I believe Terrence Young is the man to credit this with. He took the rough Connery and transformed him TO FIT with his vision for Bond. If you watch Dr No, there are all sorts of tiny things which Connery overdoes that look a bit unnatural. He can seem a tad stiff at times. Then with From Russia, most of these problems are gone because Connery is more assured. If it hadn't been for TY's guidance at the very beginning he probably wouldn't have gelled quite the same. By GF he looks positively at ease.
Actually, that's kind of what I mean. Sean's movies weren't made for Sean, but he made them awesome, especially the early ones. And then they were made 100% for the market. You Only Live Twice, for example, was clearly not made for Sean's strengths in Dr No and From Russia with Love. And Diamonds might have been even more fun with Roger, as great as Sean's casual coolness was in that.
Roger just--in my opinion--benefited from having his run more influenced by his own strengths in the role. And he even surpassed expectations in his performance in For Your Eyes Only, the movie that seems least suited to him.
I know it's dodgy of me having Sean fifth, but I honestly love them all (apart from poor Pierce).
EDIT: It's almost as though the Sean movies were gradually going toward what the Roger era was, and Rodge was just perfect for that, and did it for seven movies in 12 years. And with quite a bit of enthusiasm.