Bond Actors - My Thoughts

The most constant question asked to Bond fans: "Who is your favorite Bond?"

Being a fan of James Bond (do I italicize that? It's the name of the franchise, but it feels weird italicizing a name), I have thought of this question many times. Rather than listing my favorite Bonds from worst to best or best to worst, I will just list them chronologically and give my thoughts on each of them. Note that I will only be discussing the Bonds of the EON film series, as I have never seen the 1967 Casino Royale and it's been years since I've watched the Climax! episode or Never Say Never Again.

I will compare each portrayal with Ian Fleming's character of the novels (to the best of my ability as I'm only on the third book as of this post, so I may come back around to update!) as well as my own personal praises and criticisms.

Without further delay, here we go.

Sean Connery

First off, Connery is one of my favorite actors to ever grace the big screen, probably second only to Harrison Ford, so Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a pretty special film to me.

As Bond, Connery has the distinction of being the only actor to have gotten recorded approval from the secret agent's creator, Ian Fleming. And also the only one Fleming was initially skeptical about. But that's only because Fleming unfortunately passed away only a couple years into the film series' life. Compared to the Bond that appears on the pages of the novels, Connery's has a bit more of a sense of humor (Connery's delivery of one-liners has yet to be equaled by any other Bond) and yet, he seems a lot more deadly when he's in action. I've seen his fight with Robert Shaw in From Russia with Love. Sean Connery's Bond would destroy me if he had reason to.

My only problem with Connery is that you can tell when he started getting tired of playing the role. There's a hint of this fatigue in You Only Live Twice and he certainly doesn't give his best in Diamonds Are Forever, which he only agreed to do after a bit of bargaining. And when he came back years later to voice the character in the From Russia with Love video game, he didn't turn in the best performance, but I don't blame him, as film acting and voice acting have their differences.

George Lazenby

Whenever I see hate for Lazenby, I'm convinced that whoever is hating on the guy didn't really watch On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Now's not the time to go into how much I absolutely love the film (it's my absolute favorite!) but Lazenby did not do a bad job in it. The film gets a good amount of undeserved hate because of Lazenby, as people assume he was bad just because he did one movie and the producers didn't ask him back. But that isn't the case at all. Lazenby was convinced by his agent that Bond would become irrelevant in the '70s, so he got out of his seven film contract. If not for this, Lazenby would have been well on his way to being considered by many to be their favorite Bond.

Is he my favorite? No. But I don't hate him. He isn't the most talented actor to grace the role (I mean, he's up against the likes of Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton, so give him a break) but he absolutely nails it in several scenes in the film and he physically embodies the role so well. A lot of anti-Lazenby folks wish Connery had done On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, I'm glad he didn't. I can't see his Bond in that film. It just wouldn't work. It'd be like putting Timothy Dalton in Moonraker (unless it was an actual adaptation of the novel...). Lazenby's Bond worked perfectly for his one film. And that final scene? Perhaps the most well-performed scene by any Bond actor in the franchise. So, bravo, Mr. Lazenby.

I can't really say much in comparison to the literary Bond, as I have not read On Her Majesty's Secret Service, though I quite look forward to it. I may come back around to update once I read it.

If you dislike Lazenby, I implore you to at least ask yourself why you dislike him. Try to think of something more than just "he did only one film, therefore he sucks." If you've given him a second chance and still don't like him, fair enough.

Roger Moore

I'm not the biggest fan of Roger Moore's Bond. From what I've read of the novels so far, he's further from Fleming's idea of Bond than any of the other actors. When I think of Moore's portrayal, it feels like Bond is in his line of work for the beautiful women. Not for England. Okay, maybe except for the Union Jack parachute scene. And supposedly, Moore took issue with a few of the cold-blooded moments his Bond had that were actually totally in line with Fleming's Bond.

Moore's Bond is perhaps the suavest of them all. Even suaver than Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet. Feels like he's just some bachelor Englishman that's gotten himself swept up in adventure. But it works for the films he's in, for the most part. As much as I dislike Bond's campy period in the '70s, Moore's Bond was the only one that could have survived it. If Connery stayed through the decade, the franchise would have never made it to the '80s.

My biggest criticism against Moore's Bond is that he was far too old for the role in his last two films. The funny part is that Moore was actually older than Connery; it's just that Connery aged extremely fast compared to Moore and was showing it by Diamonds Are Forever. Moore stayed fairly youthful until the '80s rolled around. He started getting far too old for the women he was paired up with and it became hard to watch. I am not a fan of romance scenes between someone approaching their 60s and someone in their mid-20s.

Timothy Dalton

The antithesis to Roger Moore's Bond, Timothy Dalton is probably the closest thing to Fleming's Bond we'll ever see on the big screen, in part due to Dalton deriving his portrayal from the novels. Heck, he even looks more like Fleming's description of Bond than any other actor who has played him, even though he's not a dead ringer for Hoagy Carmichael. He pretty much nailed the mostly-serious, but not totally humorless character you'll find in the novels. Beneath his often cold exterior is a heart, albeit damaged and closely-guarded.

Dalton is my absolute favorite Bond. I hear his voice in my head (I mean, have you heard his voice?!) when I read Bond's dialogue in the books and see him when I envision the book in my head as I read. And I'd kill for him to record audiobooks of the novels.

His Bond was a conflicted man who was completely affected by his past. I have no trouble believing Timothy Dalton's Bond is the same man who went through the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. His entire motivation in Licence to Kill can be tied back directly to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In fact, this is another point for George Lazenby. I don't have any trouble convincing myself that George Lazenby's Bond and Timothy Dalton's Bond are the same exact character. I can't really say the same with any of the other Bonds.

Most of all, Dalton's Bond was more human than any of his predecessors. He brought Bond back down to Earth. If his first film had been the follow-up to Moonraker, he would have quite literally done so. When Dalton took on the role, gone was the larger-than-life character of the Connery and Moore days and back was the seemingly real person of the novels. It's an absolute shame that he only got to do two films before legal battles with the franchise heated up.

Pierce Brosnan

I will say first off that I'm not sure that I have ever really understood Brosnan's Bond. What sets him apart from the others, I mean. I don't dislike him. I like him better than Moore's, but I've just... never figured him out. He certainly looks the part, but maybe he was a bit... generic? I don't know. I don't like using that word for it, but I can't think of anything else to call it. I even rewatched GoldenEye in the middle of writing this post, but I still can't figure out anything unique he brought to the role. Perhaps his Bond was an odd combination of Connery and Moore. Even Brosnan himself has said something like that.

But, of course, Brosnan was probably dealt the worst hand out of all of the Bond actors. The series was arguably at its weakest in the '90s, so Brosnan didn't really get many chances to shine through the weak scripts. Perhaps he would have been a completely different Bond if he had gotten to play him in the '80s, had they not brought back Remington Steele. But then we might not have gotten Timothy Dalton, so I'm content with this being the way things turned out.

Daniel Craig

As the first new Bond of the internet age, it's easier to find hatred for Daniel Craig than any other Bond. They hate him because he has blond hair. They hate him because he's an "emo" Bond. I couldn't care less about his hair color and if we're equating "emo" with "human" nowadays, I want no part of it. Craig's Bond, I guess you could say, is the anti-hero Bond, which I believe is exactly what he needed to be in order to keep the franchise fresh.

Despite the mostly undeserved hate he has gotten, Craig has helped breathe life back into the franchise. The 2000s and 2010s have been, for the most part, a revitalization of the Bond franchise, especially when compared to the lackluster '90s. I hope his final film is a good one.

The Next Bond

The second most constant question asked to a Bond fan is "Who do you think should be the next Bond?"

My answer? I have no idea. I'd prefer someone who is somewhat known (Lazenby is pretty much the only Bond actor who was completely unheard of to the public prior to his casting) and not extremely famous. And he should be in his mid-30s to early 40s, as it has always been.

So, what's my answer? Surprise me. But don't shock me.