Who is the best James Bond?

Here’s a question for you: Who is the best James Bond 007?

Daniel Craig? Sean Connery? George Lazenby?

Erm… David Niven?

Yep, David Niven played Bond in the 1967 version of Casino Royale.

But was Niven as good as Timothy Dalton?

With arguments for and against the greatest James Bond, I’ve recently found myself wondering if there is a definitive way to figure out who did it better?

Keen to come up with a solution, I’ve taken a look through Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo, and various websites, to see if I can find an answer amongst the James Bond actors.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the highest rated James Bond movies are Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964) – all with a score of 96%. All three of these movies star Sean Connery as James Bond, which suggests people favour Connery.

Moving on to Box Office Mojo, and the highest grossing Bond movie is Skyfall (2012), with a whopping $1,108,561,013 in takings. This would suggest audiences favour Daniel Craig more.

Hmm… over to Esquire now, and according to the site, Roger Moore is the No.1 Bond.

OK, three different attempts to work out who the best Bond is and so far, three different answers! Let’s try again.

In 2018, Games Radar ranked all of the Bond films and decided that From Russia with Love was the best. This was Sean Connery’s second film, so that’s another plus point for Connery, right?

Back in 2012, a poll in The Guardian also came up with Connery as the best Bond. And a 2018 poll of 2000 Morning Consult readers also favoured Connery.

Earlier this year, My Lotto also polled 2000 people and, yep you guessed it, Sean Connery was deemed to be the greatest Bond. IMDb have previously run a poll on Bond and once again, Connery came tops.

So, is Connery the greatest James Bond of all time?

Well, he sure does appear at the top of a number of lists. Of course, it’s entirely possible (although unlikely) that the same people are voting in all these polls.

If you spend enough time searching through the internet you’ll come across many polls and discussions on Bond, and many arguments for who the greatest Bond is. Personally, I’ve always favoured Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan, but then, I think this has a lot to do with who was playing the role of James Bond when I was growing up.

As a child of the 1980s, Roger Moore was the star of the Bond films that I saw on TV and my favourite Bond movie is Live and Let Die (1973). The first Bond movie I saw on the big screen was GoldenEye (1995) – Pierce Brosnan’s Bond debut.

So while I understand why Connery appears at the top of many lists – he did originate the role on the big screen after all – I would say that in my mind, the best Bond is whoever you want it to be.

Although technically (according to the internet) it is Connery.

And if you want to read more about Bond, check out my post: What is the best order to watch the James Bond movies?. You can also head to the comments section and tell me who YOU believe to be the best James Bond!

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