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Ranking the James Bond actors.

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Lightning Count

Lightning Count

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Connery>Craig>Dalton>Brosnan>Moore

Connery has to be number one, he's the original and stars in what honestly is the best film of the bunch, From Russia With Love, he's a badass.

Craig, this bond is a man of action, he gets to the point and is probably the most human he has ever been, despite his womanising ways, he's vulnerable and fallible. But when things get rough, you know he's down.

Dalton, this Bond cares little for throwaway romances and notions of being cool, a brutal Bond who is quick to anger and doesn't stand for any shenanigans. Also shown to be a master manipulator, playing his paranoid enemies against each other.

Brosnan, in Goldeneye he very much follows the mould of his predecessor. But by the end he'd become more like a superhero, also automatic machine gun fire rather than finesse seemed to be his bag a lot of the time.

Moore, in all honesty, a parody, sadly this version of Bond was the longest lived. His tenure had some good moments but these were overshadowed by the ridiculousness most times.
 
Connery > Lazenby > Craig > Brosnan > Dalton = Moore

I would have liked to see an extended Lazenby run. I thought he had exceptional potential given how green an actor he was.
 
Brosnan > Moore > Connery > Dalton > Craig > Lazenby

The first 3 had crazy amount of charm in their Bonds. The last 3 lacked that.
 
Dalton > Connery > Craig > Brosnan > Lazenby > Moore

I was honestly kinda blown away by Dalton when I first saw his Bond flicks. I thought he would suck, but he ended up being my favorite. Connery is classic Bond, and just suave and fucking cool all around. Craig is the modern, rough but human Bond. Brosnan is like a Spielberg version of Bond, which is enjoyable, and I love Goldeneye, but I found him less fun than the others upon a recent rewatch. He was just too suave, all the time. I haven't yet seen Lazenby, though I want to, so putting Moore after him shows you how much I care for Moore.
 
In terms of what happened on screen, Dalton is my favorite. Dalton is who I look at and think that is the real James Bond, as opposed to a person playing him.Craig comes very close though, he was picked specifically to be the Bond in Casino Royale, but Skyfall has shown his range with the character.

Brosnan had the most potential though. He could have very easily been Ian Fleming's Bond, but he was called to be a more stereotypical view of the character.

I find it hard to rank all of the actors at once because their styles vary so greatly.

Moore, in all honesty, a parody
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To be fair, Moore fit the tone of movies that were being made at the end of Connery's era which are borderline parodies in themselves. If you put Roger Moore in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds are Forever, he would've improved those movies just on the virtue of being highly entertaining on his own.

You can tell they were struggling to find a new actor once For Your Eyes Only came about (which was the return of a serious take at a Bond film using FRWL as a basis for its plot structure).
 
Brosnan > Craig > Connery > Dalton = Lazenby > Moore


My first exposure to the Bond series was Goldeneye on N64. Brosnan will always be Bond to me.
 
Lightning Count said:
Why the fuck are people listing Idris Elba, he hasn't played Bond as has repeatedly turned the role down.
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Because it's an in-joke that probably first appeared on fuckin' io9 and just gets repeated ad nauseum to show geek cred.

I think he would make a terrible Bond. He belongs in Marvel films, which is totally incompatible with the Bond series. It's like if I said, "y'know who would make a great Thor? Pierce Brosnan!"
 
Connery > Dalton > Brosnan > Moore > Lazenby > Craig

I think Daniel Craig's a fine actor, by the way, but too much of a thug for Bond. I always pictured someone more refined. Craig has this air of unnecessary brutality to his Bond. I could switch Brosnan and Dalton depending on my mood, they were both excellent and both didn't have enough to work with to really split between them.
 
Brosnan = Dalton = Connery > Craig, Lazenby, Moore

They're all good for different reaons, but Moore's films were my least favorite generally.
 
Is this ranking on their portrayal of Bond regardless of the quality of the film they're in? For example, I thought Brosnan played an excellent version of Bond but, aside from Goldeneye, was hamstrung by some awful films.

I'm going with my favourite versions rather than favourite Bond films they were in:

Connery - the original and classic interpretation
Brosnan - great combination of action and a light touch
Dalton - liked his hard edge, but seemed uncomfortable with the humour side
Moore - not a popular choice for many, but the Bond I grew up with
Craig - like Dalton, shows a rough and hard edge, but very little in the way of humour
Lazenby - not a bad version by any means and almost a template for Dalton's Bond
 
Lazenby>Connery>Brosnan>Craig>Moore>>>>>>>>>David Niven>>>>>>>>Dalton

I like Lazenby. And by only being in one Bond movie, he managed not to have any shitty Bond movies. The others all had some shit.

Connery - Has the advantage of being the original and thus set the standard.

Brosnan - Looks the part and GoldenEye was so great (went downhill from there).

Craig - Like Brosnan had a great first Bond movie and then it went downhill

Moore - Too much camp. Definitely had some good ones though like Live & Let Die.

Dalton - I just fucking hate him. So generic. Never worked for me.
 
Why is today Bond day on GAF? Weird.

Craig > Connery > Dalton > Brosnan > Lazenby >>>>> Moore

Craig gets it over Connery because Connery visibly, obviously gave up on acting or even being the Connery persona that got him over in the first place. Everything from Thunderball on is him basically looking sideways at the audience and saying "Fuck this, and fuck you for eating it up."

Craig hasnt done that.
 
Probably Connery>Brosnan>Craig>Moore>Mr. Pricklepants>Lazenby for me.

I like Connery best, but I think Pierce Brosnan looked the most 'James Bond' if that makes any sense. When I think of James Bond, I picture Pierce Brosnan most of the time. I really like Roger Moore though, but I always thought his Bond films were a bit ridiculous at times.
 
Connery = Moore > Brosnan > Dalton > Lazenby = Craig.

Craig is a great actor but not at all a good Bond, the love he gets is beyond me.
 
Dalton>Connery>Craig>Moore>Lazenby>Brosnan

Dalton did the dark gritty bond years before Craig and he did it better.
 
OP's order is the same as mine.

Connery is the GOAT. He put his unique stamp on Bond and it became a part of the character forever, no one else could do that.

Craig and Dalton are the character done seriously, and their legitimacy makes the fantasy of the character more thrilling. Obviously Craig is above Dalton in that sense, he's harder, his movies are better.... But I do appreciate that Dalton was pointed in the same direction.

Brosnan and Moore are the camp masters... Shades away from doing an Austin Powers impression. In the 90s I used to think that's what Bond was, and so I loved Brosnan. But in retrospect he's vamping through all the films. I think I blame the scripts and tone of the era... He was just adapting to it. And Moore was campy like that and even more so.
 
Connery> Dalton> Lazenby> Craig> Moore> Brosnan.

I like all of them, for very different reasons, the only reason Brosnan comes last is because his Bond was playing too much to the cliché rather than making the character truly his own and the material he was given, GoldenEye aside, was not very good. Moore's schtick grated more strongly at times, but a lot of his movies are enormously enjoyable Sunday afternoon entertainment and he had a lot of charisma. Craig is middle of the road for me, he's great in CR portraying the closest thing we've seen yet to Fleming's Bond, but quite stiff in both QoS and Skyfall.

Lazenby is hugely underrated, accent aside he gives a great performance, adding real emotional depth to the character while being one of the best Bonds in a fight. Dalton perhaps lacked the snobbish element, but he did what Craig is aiming for but better, making Bond feel just human enough while still being typically superheroic in his abilities. I also love both his movies. Connery is of course the original and the best, even if his interest faded strongly for his last two movies (excluding NSNA) and he played the character more as a monolithic archetype, absent any real depth. He was just a perfect fit from the get-go, though, and it's impossible to imagine the character becoming the pop cultural icon he has become had the series started out with anyone else.
 
Modern Bonds lack any sense of humour so Craig is DNF for me. Therefore:

Dalton, Moore, Brosnan, Connery, Craig, Lazenby, Robbie Williams.
 
Moore > Craig = Connery > Dalton > Brosnan

Come at me!

Haven't seen the Lazenby one. But it can't be more boring than Brosnan.
 
If we're strictly walking their suitability for Bond/how well they handled the role and not necessarily the material they were given, it's:

Connery > Brosnan > Dalton > Craig > Lazenby > Moore

If we're talking about the average quality of their films included, it's:

Connery > Dalton > Craig > Brosnan > Moore (excepting Lazenby since he only had one and it's a stone cold classic)
 
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