As we await phrase of who will play James Bond subsequent, listed below are all seven — oh sorry, we imply 007 — James Bond actors ranked, from Daniel Craig to Sean Connery to David Niven.

Since his big-screen debut in 1960’s Dr. No, Bond has been an indelible display screen presence — a person who adjustments with the instances, however doesn’t change too a lot. So the actors who play him want a traditional high quality, whilst they keep on the fringe of their eras.

And with that, listed below are all 007 James Bond actors ranked, from least good to greatest.

Barry Nelson (Honorable Point out)

When you’re saying “Barry who?” please put some respect on the identify of Barry Nelson, who was the primary actor to play Bond onscreen.

He appeared in a 1954 episode of the little-remembered sequence Climax in an episode referred to as “On line casino Royale” that was, after all, additionally the primary 007 novel by James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Nelson was the primary and solely American to play Bond, and by no means performed him on the large display screen. However we’re together with him right here as a result of each time we write something about James Bond, some tremendous spy infiltrates the feedback to remind us that Nelson, not Sean Connery, was technically the primary Bond.

So right here he’s, honorably talked about.

Quantity 7: David Niven

Does David Niven actually belong on the checklist of James Bond actors? Many would say no, which is why he’s in final place. The super-suave actor was Ian Fleming’s first option to play Bond onscreen earlier than that honor went to Sean Connery (or Barry Nelson, when you’re counting TV.)

Niven ended up enjoying Bond a single time, within the 1967 movie On line casino Royale, which is a spy satire loosely based mostly on Ian Fleming’s novel. When you don’t assume a movie making enjoyable of Bond movies counts as a Bond movie, you in all probability don’t take into account Niven a correct 007.

On line casino Royale got here out, reasonably confusingly, in the identical yr because the fifth Connery Bond movie, You Solely Reside Twice. (That was definitely true for Bond in 1967, when he obtained to be performed by two completely different stars.)

However wait, it will get extra complicated: One of many conceits of On line casino Royale is that there are a number of Bonds. And to make issues extra complicated nonetheless, the 1967 On line casino Royale bears little resemblance to the 2006 On line casino Royale starring Daniel Craig or the 1954 televised model starring Barry Nelson.

The movie additionally holds the excellence of together with a number of stars who appeared in different Bond movies, most notably Ursula Andress, who will be seen right here in a sequence of behind the scenes pictures from Dr. No.

Niven is the one actor, moreover Connery, to play Bond in a movie not made by EON Productions. Extra on that quickly.

Quantity 6: George Lazenby

Lazenby performed arguably probably the most tragic Bond — his sole outing as 007, in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, ends with him marrying the enchanting Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) — solely to see her killed in a drive-by taking pictures by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas — who, as Blofeld, doesn’t love ya, child.)

Lazenby offered himself fairly respectably as the primary EON Bond moreover Sean Connery, who just isn’t simple to comply with. Thankfully for him, Niven had loosened up audiences to the concept multiple actor may play 007.

Lazenby was additionally notable as the only Australian to play Bond, although we may get one other sometime quickly if Jacob Elordi followers get their want.

Quantity 5: Daniel Craig

That’s proper, we expect Craig — the most recent actor to play Bond — was solely the fifth greatest. Sure, he was the buffest of any Bond, and deserves factors for that. However when the Bond producers determined to go darkish and gritty for 2006’s On line casino Royale, they sacrificed among the allure, and sure, camp, of previous Bond movies.

Good an actor as Craig is — he’s particularly nice in 2004’s Layer Cake, the function that certainly performed an enormous half in getting him forged as Bond — he was the one James Bond actor who appeared pretty miserably being James Bond.

If there’s one factor we learn about Bond, it’s that he’s realized to chortle at life, and loss of life. Taking that trait from Craig’s Bond was, in our opinion, a mistake.

Additionally Learn: All 7 Batman Actors Ranked Worst to Greatest

Quantity 4: Roger Moore

Sure, Roger Moore is the campiest, silliest Bond, the 007 who strained credulity by bouncing from Blaxploitation in Reside and Let Die to sci-fi in Moonraker. His Bond typically appeared to be chasing no matter was the cool pattern of the ’70s and early ’80s.

However Moore had a deadpan allure that made it work. He by no means appeared to take himself too severely, and at all times appeared to be having a blast.

And after Sean Connery invented and outlined the function, who can blame Moore for placing his personal wilder, weirder stamp on it? Possibly Moore’s Bond movies weren’t critical sufficient for some folks’s tastes, however a minimum of they by no means took themselves too severely.

Quantity 3: Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan was in some ways an ideal Bond: sly, witty, artful, enjoyable, dapper — but in addition a convincing undercover agent.

Brosnan’s identify began getting floated as James Bond as quickly as he popped up on the ’80s sequence Remington Steele, and he nearly obtained the function as an alternative of the following Bond actor on our checklist. However it’s too everybody’s profit that his casting didn’t occur too quickly. By changing into Bond in his early 40s, Brosnan arrived on the 007 franchise with grit and gravitas he could have lacked a decade earlier.

Alas, Brosnan suffered the indignity of uttering the worst line in any Bond film, the one about Christmas coming however every year in 1999’s The World Is Not Sufficient. However don’t blame Pierce Brosnan, who didn’t write the film.

Quantity 2: Timothy Dalton

Hear us out on this one, as a result of we all know a few of you received’t agree that somebody who solely performed James Bond twice ought to be second on our checklist.

We recognize that Timothy Dalton performed the Bond who felt probably the most like an actual individual, and probably the most like somebody we’d need as a good friend. In a concession to the safe-sex morality of the AIDS period, he was extra of a one-woman man than previous Bonds. (OK, perhaps a two-woman man). Crucially, he appeared probably the most able to actual human emotion.

He appeared nearly good, he appeared each robust and delicate, and he had a first-class smirk. The Dwelling Daylights and Licence to Kill might not be the preferred Bond films, however they supplied a bridge between the pretty sexist Chilly Struggle relic Bond of outdated and the extra considerate Bonds of Generations X, Y and Z.

No 1: Sean Connery 

All that stuff we simply mentioned? Despite it, Connery’s Chilly Struggle relic Bond continues to be the all-time greatest, as a result of he didn’t care what anybody considered him.

Sean Connery’s Bond was robust, humorous, sardonic, self-aware, and sensible. He famously obtained the job by swaggering out of his audition and down the road with good confidence, and stored it by holding audiences perpetually amused. He’s what trendy audiences would take into account by far probably the most problematic Bond, however he’s additionally shielded by the armor of his time.

Oh: And he was the one Bond to star in each EON movies and a non-EON movie, 1985’s By no means Say By no means Once more.

When you appreciated this checklist, you may additionally get pleasure from this checklist of Bond Woman Names Ranked, from Foolish to Sensational.

And please comply with us for extra tales like this.

Most important picture: A promotional picture from License to Kill.. United Artists.

Editor’s Observe: Corrects principal picture.