Who have done the best portrayal of James Bond?

[Asper Sarnoff]

Out of all the various people that have portrayed Ian Flemming's famous secret agent, which one do you think was the best?

For me, the best is without a doubt the original, Sean Connery. Followed by Pierce Brosnan. And newcomer Daniel Craig I think did such a good job that he deserves an honorable third.

Dalton and Lazenby I don't really remember much of. They were only in three movies added together.

Roger Moore was a rubbish Bond in my opinion. He was more of a gentleman clown than the hardhitting, coldblooded seducer I prefer as agent double-o seven.

[SlyJedi]

I too, feel that Sean Connery did the best version of Bond, primarily in the first 4:

Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball.

You Only Live Twice is not all that good to me and I felt Diamonds Are Forever was just trash. Both of which butchered the good books they were based on by Ian Flemming.

Daniel Craig is my 2nd favorite. I loved Casino Royale, it was a great adaptation (even better than the book IMO).

But I thought that Quantum of Solace was the worst Bond film ever in my opinion. It reduced Bond to an unlikeable thug in my view.

Pierce Brosnan is my 3rd favorite.

I loved him in the masterpiece Goldeneye. But the sequels to it were very subpar in their script work in my opinion.

Timothy Dalton is #4.

I loved the Living Daylights and Timothy was a good Bond, but License to Kill was just crap to me. Too violent and sickeningly gory (second worst bond). Not to mention it did the same thing QOS would do almost two decades later: Turn Bond into a thuggish hitman.

Roger Moore ranks number 5.

Though he gave good performances (mostly). I did not care for almost all of his Bond films. They were just too cartoonish for me. The sole exception of For Your Eyes Only, which is where Roger's Bond toughened up and the story well adapted two short stories from the title book by Flemming.

Though the pre-credits sequence with what appears to be Blofeld sucks with the exception of when Bond is visiting Tracy's grave, because it was too cartoony. The end scenes with the Prime Minister weren't great either. Also at the age of 53 Roger started to show his age there. Other than that it was a fun but not great film.

George Lazenby is the 6th and worst in my view.

He had been in no cinematic feature productions prior to On Her Majesty's Secret Service and it showed. I know that some will disagree, but his performance was just not good to me (nor was Diana Rigg's for that matter). A somewhat theatrically seasoned actor should play Bond in my opinion.

Pheeew... I apologize for the long post, but I just wanted to express this, being someone who has seen most of the films and read the books by Ian Flemming.

[Asper Sarnoff]

I agree with all of what you said there Sly. Especially about how Casino Royale was good, but Quantom of Solace was one of the, if not the worst of all Bond movies.

Out of the films, it's Goldfinger, Goldeneye, and Casino Royale which I find to be the best.

[Mr. Foxer]

Connery and Brosnan

[Sabre]

Who voted Lazenby?

For me, it's Brosnen, followed by Moore. People always go mental at this point, so I will try to explain.

Bond is ment to be charasimatic, smart and cool. Not a beef cake. Moore and Peirce booth had the charm to make it believable that he relises on smooth talking and quick wit. Unfortunatly, after Goldeneye and Tommorow Never Dies (underrated imo) Pierces films were all crap.

[X-Gamer]

Pierce was the best out of everyone, I have to say in my opinion. Every single character trait Bond is described as, Pierce has (or acted as.). Goldeneye and some other of his films shows that. i.e. cunning, handsome, etc.

I know many will disagree with me when I say this, but I think Sean Connery was a bad actor for James Bond. I just have this feeling that Sean is lacking something he needs to be a better Bond. It could be his looks, acting, or some other reason, but the ones I've seen, he just doesn't fit being Bond.

Daniel Craig is...okay for being portrayed as Bond. Definetly, his character and looks are too rough. He's without a doubt good at acting and looks cool but just too rough.

[Sabre]

Pierce was the best out of everyone, I have to say in my opinion. Every single character trait Bond is described as, Pierce has (or acted as.). Goldeneye and some other of his films shows that. i.e. cunning, handsome, etc.

I know many will disagree with me when I say this, but I think Sean Connery was a bad actor for James Bond. I just have this feeling that Sean is lacking something he needs to be a better Bond. It could be his looks, acting, or some other reason, but the ones I've seen, he just doesn't fit being Bond.

Daniel Craig is...okay for being portrayed as Bond. Definetly, his character and looks are too rough. He's without a doubt good at acting and looks cool but just too rough.

Both Sean and Craig are both known as lookers. I agree though. Sean is to thugish to pull it off.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Anyone but Daniel Craig, I hate that guy!  He's a no-talent hack.  He's also a hypocrite, he's very anti-gun, yet he goes around in his movies shooting people.  He's also a real insufferable jerk, he refused an autograph to a friend of mine when she approached him, asking him nicely for it.  It's not like he was busy or anything like that, either, they were in an elevator.

Pierce is pretty damn good.

[Guest Matt macdowel]

i am not sure i have to say daniel greg or the new one

[Asper Sarnoff]

Anyone but Daniel Craig, I hate that guy!  He's a no-talent hack.  He's also a hypocrite, he's very anti-gun, yet he goes around in his movies shooting people.  He's also a real insufferable jerk, he refused an autograph to a friend of mine when she approached him, asking him nicely for it.  It's not like he was busy or anything like that, either, they were in an elevator.

That wasn't particulary nice of him. But it won't detract from the fact that he isn't to bad an actor. He doesn't look like one would imagine Bond tough, that honor without doubt goes to Brosnan.

I remember hearing something similar about Connery once. An episode in which he was a proper jerk to a journalist which had apointed an interview with him.

Guess everyone has their bad days, even agent 007.

i am not sure i have to say daniel greg or the new one

Daniel Craig IS the new one.

[Sarita]

Sean Connery is turning 80 this year and I bet he could STILL do Bond.

Good God that's a good looking man.

[Vy'drach]

I went with Connery, not entirely sure why, I just enjoyed his movies the most, except for Live and Let Die, which was his favourite Bond movie as well, even though he didn't star in it, and he can be an ass a lot though, he frequently comes to the set hours late because he knows he can, but he at least has the acting ability to back it up, not like some of these other actors that think they're hot shit when, in reality, they'd be easy to replace, like Christian Bale and his freaking out at the guy.

And wow Sissi, he's 80, my god, didn't know he was that old.

[Guest Mr. Mario]

BEST: Bronsan

WORST: Craig

[CrypticQuery]

Hmm, it's hard to beat the original, so it's Sean Connery for me!

I also thoroughly enjoyed Roger Moore.

[tomas20]

For me, Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan.

That said, I still give props to George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig for their attempts at being 007.

Sean Connery had the voice, the looks and the charisma of what I believe a secret agent should have. He was THE James Bond. He put everything he was into the role and it shows.

Now, Roger Moore was good at following in Connery's footsteps, but he didn't quite give off the same Bond flair as Mr. Connery. That said, his performance was top notch and if I could I would actually rate Roger Moore and Sean Connery as close equals.

Pierce Brosnan. Now, he's the one who brought back the spark of good Bond movies. Pierce succeeded where George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton failed. He had the looks, voice, attitude and even his line execution was good. If it weren't for my love of the older James Bond movies, Mr. Brosnan would've probably been my number one choice. From Goldeneye to Die Another Day and even to the Best Bond video game, Everything or Nothing, Mr. Brosnan was a the best person for bringing back the series of spy movies.

George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton may not have been the best Bonds, sure, but I still wouldn't say they were terrible. I rate Timothy Dalton higher than George Lazenby because Dalton did a few more movies than Lazenby. Therefore, Dalton has had more time to adjust to the role of being the best British secret agent ever made.

However, now we touch on bad ground, with Daniel Craig. Perhaps the most controversial actor for the Bond franchise. Why, controversial? Because I'm sure Bond fans will agree that the remake of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace just didn't seem like Bond movies and more like generic spy movies with the Bond name slapped onto it.

First and foremost, Daniel Craig is actually a very dramatic actor, don't get me wrong. But for Bond, drama is not what's required for the role. I don't blame the actor for the performance, rather I'd blame the director, Martin Campbell and the writers, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis.

Martin Campbell has done nothing wrong in the past having directed Goldeneye, the first time Pierce Brosnan got to say "Bond. James Bond". So what went wrong with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace? Well, Casino Royale was considered the start of a new series of Bond movies, an unnecessary reboot of the franchise, I might add.

Now, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade aren't bad writers. They've written great movies in the past, including a few Bond movies. Purvis and Wade played a hand in the writing of The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). So I wouldn't ever blame the lack of success for the Daniel Craig saga on those two.

Now... the third writer, Paul Haggis. He was the screenwriter and director for the following movies, Red Hot, Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Last Kiss, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, and the two Daniel Craig Bond movies. What's wrong with this? Well, lets take a look at his list of written movies and see what they all have in common. Red Hot is an overly dramatic movie set in the 1950s about rock music being banned in Russia and a group of kids decide to make copies of a rock and roll album to sell, which lands them into trouble. Already he's shown that he seems to appeal to the dramatic side of  the audience. Could that be what's wrong with the movies? Hmm... could be. The rest of his movies are more well known than Red Hot since they earned more at the box office. But the rest are also very dramatic movies, especially Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. It seems to me, that he tried to put that kind of drama into the Bond franchise which I'm sure I, and many other Bond fans would agree, that it was a bad idea.

Bond is not supposed to be dramatic and gritty. It's supposed to be spy action, charming, clever and on occasion, humorous, just like the earlier movies. However the two new Bond movies don't carry over any of that. I know it's supposed to be a reboot, but they're not rebooting the right series. Bond shouldn't be rebooted. Wouldn't that kind of deem the efforts of all the other Bonds, useless?

And I'm fairly sure that the writers and directors of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace have received a lot of hate of those two movies, yet, they insist on creating another Bond movie. Is it out of ignorance? Or are they just trying to tend to different fans? Or are they planning something? I'm not sure of any of those, but I hope, one day, they go back to making Bond movies the way they were supposed to be made.

That said (and back onto the original subject about the best Bond), they're all great actors, but some just didn't portray Bond the way they were supposed to.

So my list of Bonds in order from Best to Worst.

1: Sean Connery

2: Roger Moore

3: Pierce Brosnan

4: Timothy Dalton

5: George Lazenby

6: Daniel Craig

(Sorry I kinda turned the thread into a review thread. XD)

[Star Fox Runner]

Well, the first Bond movie I ever saw was Goldeneye, so I would have to say Pierce Brosnan. I'm not saying that Connery or Moore didn't do good jobs, they were both fantastic, but Brosnan is the guy I will always imagine when I see Bond.

I personally like Daniel Craig, though I can see why people don't like him as Bond, he is a departure from what we see Bond as, but I liked Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

[Guest DRL]

Well, I guess I can not say anything...

The only movie I have seen was

'Goldeneye'. I have seen part

of a newer one, but I can not remember

much of it...

[Falcory]

Pierce Brosnan was the best in IMO. I kinda liked Roger Moore too from what I saw of him in the bond movies. Sean Connery was okay...he seemed a little too serious at times although he mostly acted like a secret agent would.

Daniel Craig is AWFUL though. Don't get me wrong....Casino Royale rocked ass, and he's not too bad of an actor, but GOD is he ugly. I'm male and even I can tell that.  I just can't get over a James Bond actor being portrayed like that.

Peirce Brosnan FTW though. He's acting was perfect. 

I never saw any of the other bonds so I wouldn't know about them.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Pierce Brosnan was the best in IMO. I kinda liked Roger Moore too from what I saw of him in the bond movies. Sean Connery was okay...he seemed a little too serious at times although he mostly acted like a secret agent would.

Daniel Craig is AWFUL though. ...GOD is he ugly. I'm a male and even I can tell that.  I just can't get over a James Bond actor being portrayed like that.

Peirce Brosnan FTW though. He's acting was perfect. 

I never saw any of the other bonds so I wouldn't know about them.

I agree!  Daniel Craig is an ugly, no talent hack!  He's extremely anti-gun, yet he plays the part of James Bond.  WTF!?  Hypocrite.....

[Asper Sarnoff]

I agree!  Daniel Craig is an ugly, no talent hack!  He's extremely anti-gun, yet he plays the part of James Bond.  WTF!?  Hypocrite.....

The thing with actors you see, is that they ACT, they don't have to BE similar to the characters they portray.

One thing I found funny tough. Bond loves his cars, as we all know. But in Casino Royale, Craig couldn't drive any of the Aston Martins, both the DB5 and the DBS, because he can't drive a stick. :lol:

[Guest DRL]

The thing with actors you see, is that they ACT, they don't have to BE similar to the characters they portray.

That is right. I do not go

"FIRE-THE-HYPER-CANNON!"

IRL.

[Sol-Ratcht Saporro]

Grew up with Pierce but I will say for second place it has to be Sean and his sexy ackshent. After all Diamonds are Forever is my all time favorite bond movie.