Craig, Connery then Moore for me.
Spectre, Casino Royale and Skyfall top 3 bond flicks.

Sean Connery and “Goldfinger”.

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Originally posted by smschulz:

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Connery is Bond, though......period.

^^^^^^

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Connery, Craig, Brosnan.

Connery and Brosnan fit the description of Fleming's Bond as pertains to appearance. Craig and Connery fit the description as pertains to physical roughness and cold detachment with Craig edging out Connery.

Also, Cary Grant was Fleming's first choice to play Bond.

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Dalton was great. Lazenby was also pretty good (for a guy who didn't really want the part). Connery WAS Bond, though.

Agree with this 100%

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Originally posted by 2BobTanner:
Sean Connery and “Goldfinger”.

Wow. Third page of this thread before someone says four simple words and nails it. Definitive Bond and definitive Bond movie. Connery and his Aston Martin DB5; Gert Frobe as Goldfinger; Oddjob and Pussy Galore (was there ever a better Bond Girl name?); Shirley Bassey's theme song; and maybe the single best brief dialog exchange in the entire Bond catalog, as Bond is lying spread-eagle with a lazer headed for the tender apex of the triangle:

Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!

I love 'em all, but this tops my list.

It was 1964; I was in college. As soon as Goldfinger came out, four buddies and I went and "kidnapped" another buddy who was living with his mother. Didn't say a word, just each picked up one limb and we headed for his Oldsmobile. Mom came out, Larry had to say "It's OK, Mom, these are friends of mine. No, really!"
And unforgettable scene for an unforgettable movie.

However...

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Craig even got the greatest Bond girl... Eva Green as Vesper Lynd.

I'm glad someone got that right. Best boobs ever.

Why is James Bond hated by the actors who portray him?

It’s not about the character, it’s about the long commitment and the tedious things that go with signing a contract to be James Bond.

In the 1990’s when Pierce Brosnan was under contract to be James Bond he was also cast as the lead in the film “The Thomas Crown Affair. (1999)”, Brosnan was not allowed to wear a Tuxedo/Dinner Suit in any film outside of the Bond Franchise.

So for this scene in The Thomas Crown Affair, the filmmakers had to have Brosnan wear his shirt un-bottened and also had his bow tie untied, so that technically he’s not fully wearing a tuxedo/dinner suit. Yes, it’s true and tedious at the same time.

In addition an actor will have to commit to 1 year per film 6 months of training, filming, then going on tour to multiple countries around the globe to promote the film for another 6 months, sometimes the timeline is even longer, so those are a few reasons why actors dislike being Bond as a whole.

Trust me overall they love being Bond because it’s an honor to be such an iconic character and the money helps too!
Sean Connery grew tired of the role and walked away after You Only Live Twice. George Lazenby did one movie and walked away from the franchise (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) after being told James Bond was over,so in reality he was given not bad but awful advice.
Connery demanded a Fee of 1.25 Million Dollars and he got it for his return in Diamonds are Forever(1971). Once more he walked away from the franchise after that film.

Roger Moore did 7 movies and in between his 4th and 5th turn as Bond he played Seymou Goldfarb Jr. in Cannonball Run a character pretending he was Roger Moore. It is said that this role is what created the tuxedo clause as mentioned in Steve Wheeler post in the comment section below. Roger Moore walked away from the franchise at the age of 58, and in all fairness he made the right choice, and walked away gracefully on his own terms.

Timothy Dalton did 2 films as Bond and wanted to do another film in 1990, however there were legal issues between Eon Productions and MGM.
The door was open for Dalton to return as Bond when the lawsuit was resolved in 1994, but he had decided he would only want to return for one movie.

"[Producer Albert Broccoli] said, quite rightly, 'Look, Tim. You can't do one. There's no way, after a five-year gap between movies that you can come back and just do one. You'd have to plan on four or five,'" Dalton recalled.

"And I thought, 'Oh, no, that would be the rest of my life. Too much. Too long.' So I respectfully declined."
Enter Pierce Brosnan had 4 films as Bond. His 4th film Die Another Day was a critical misfire, it was – at the time – the highest-grossing Bond movie yet, so it seemed likely that Brosnan would return for a fifth role – and he certainly seemed up for it.

However, according to an interview in Bond book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films, negotiations over a fifth outing didn't go the way Brosnan wanted. He recalled being in the Bahamas working on After the Sunset when he was told that "negotiations have stopped" and that the producers weren't "quite sure what they want to do".

"Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [Wilson] were on the line – 'We're so sorry'. She was crying, Michael was stoic and he said, 'You were a great James Bond. Thank you very much' and I said, 'Thank you very much. Goodbye."That was it. I was utterly shocked and just kicked to the curb with the way it went down."

Finally Daniel Craig completed 5 films . Craig was not only an actor but also a Producer. So he got to do things his way a little more with each film. In the end he got to have the closure he wanted for the character and he got to walk away on his terms. He also collected a mountain of money too.

I will say that all of the actors don’t hate the role. Some grow tired of it, get bored etc. Once more they know they were all blessed and lucky to be Bond, even though at times they may have felt trapped in the role. If you read the article below Lazenby, Dalton, & Brosnan all wanted to another film, so in my eyes it’s fair to say they didn’t hate being Bond

Always remember Sean Connery came back to the role AGAIN in Never Say Never Again. Named after the fact that Connery said he would never do another Bond movie. It is debated that this isn’t a Bond film because it isn’t produced by Eon Productions. The proper statement is: It’s Sean Connery, he plays James Bond, it just isn’t produced by Eon Productions, which has produced 25 Bond films.

Whenever I hear "James Bond", my thoughts go immediately to Sean Connery. Dalton was good, probably my second favorite, although as someone else already said, the stories he got weren't all that great. Roger Moore is a fairly good actor and I've liked him in other things he's done, but I never cared for him as Bond. Lazenby, it's hard to say given that he only got one shot at it. Brosnan and Craig, meh.

What for me was even more jarring than changing the lead actor, was when they replaced the original M, Q and Moneypenny.

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n addition an actor will have to commit to 1 year per film 6 months of training, filming, then going on tour to multiple countries around the globe to promote the film for another 6 months, sometimes the timeline is even longer, so those are a few reasons why actors dislike being Bond as a whole.

No different than any other successful action franchise, as for the marketing portion, that's par for the course when it comes to big-budget movies. Actors travel all around the world to do red-carpet premieres, make appearance on the local talk shows, hold a handful of press junkets, then move-on. The vast majority of actors could only dream of getting such an opportunity to do such.

My understanding is a) actors get bored of playing the role and b) they don't want to be caught up in the internal drama within Eon Productions and the Broccoli trust/family/clique/inner circle.

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Originally posted by sjtill:
It was 1964; I was in college. As soon as Goldfinger came out, four buddies and I went and "kidnapped" another buddy who was living with his mother. Didn't say a word, just each picked up one limb and we headed for his Oldsmobile. Mom came out, Larry had to say "It's OK, Mom, these are friends of mine. No, really!"
And unforgettable scene for an unforgettable movie.

However...

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Craig even got the greatest Bond girl... Eva Green as Vesper Lynd.

I'm glad someone got that right. Best boobs ever.

I think I'd go along with Eva Green as best Bond girl. Great boobs, yes, but incredible eyes and mouth as well. She's just plain stunning. I like her a lot.

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Great boobs, yes, but incredible eyes and mouth as well. She's just plain stunning. I like her a lot.

Well yes, there is that. Plus she could act. Plus having Bond lose her for once caused him real pain, not just a cynical quip.

Kinda related.

The inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond was probably Dusko Popov, a Serbian double/triple agent during WWII. His code name was Tricycle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%C5%A1ko_Popov

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Originally posted by Expert308:
Whenever I hear "James Bond", my thoughts go immediately to Sean Connery. Dalton was good, probably my second favorite, although as someone else already said, the stories he got weren't all that great. Roger Moore is a fairly good actor and I've liked him in other things he's done, but I never cared for him as Bond. Lazenby, it's hard to say given that he only got one shot at it. Brosnan and Craig, meh.

What for me was even more jarring than changing the lead actor, was when they replaced the original M, Q and Moneypenny.

Tend to agree.

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Originally posted by Orive 8:
Not for me, I've NEVER liked Sean Connery at all, Craig is decent; I liked Pierce Brosnan the best.

About 5 years ago, we re-watched them all over a few days. In retrospect, there were some really, REALLY, R E A L L Y bad films in the line.

I don't think it's fair to judge the actors for the utterly shat films they were called upon to do. I think Connery might have been good had he faced the same production value and maturity of the film crew that Craig did.

Still, on a whole, the modern Casino Royale is the best of the best. IMO, and in fact.