The honorary James Bond role in 007 movies is as coveted as it is exclusive. While everyone has their favorite actor to portray Bond, a recent study determined the most popular and it’s probably not who you think.
According to the study, Timothy Dalton ranks as the most popular James Bond among his six peers. Dalton’s first Bond appearance was in The Living Daylights, taking over the role from Roger Moore. He appeared in another film and was expected to reprise the role a third time, but lengthy development times between the movies led to him forfeiting the position.
This may have been a big mistake, as Pierce Brosnan took over for GoldenEye, an incredible success. However, GoldenEye’s sequels received mixed responses, leading Eon Productions to reboot the franchise. Casino Royale debuted in 2006 starring Daniel Craig as a younger Bond. 007 fans seemed happy, with Craig returning for four more movies and concluding with his final one, No Time to Die.
Screenrant reports the study analyzed IMDb data to determine the most popular Bond actor. The numbers discovered Dalton ranks on top with an average 7.3 rating on his movies out of 10. This just edges out Craig with a cumulative 7.2 and Sean Connery at 6.9. Brosnan came in fourth at 6.6 with Roger Moore also scoring 6.6. Finally, George Lazenby finished last with an average 6.1 out of 10.
This is likely surprising given most talks about the “best Bond” pit Connery against Craig. One can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Dalton’s third movie hadn’t been stuck with development troubles for so long. Had he reprised the role a third time, who’s to say it couldn’t have extended to even more.
‘James Bond’ Actor Daniel Craig Ran Away After Accidentally Breaking Former WWE Star Dave Bautista’s Nose on Set
James Bond may be with the British Secret Service and a hero, but there are some things even he knows he shouldn’t do. One of those happens to be messing with a former WWE star. Daniel Craig recently recounted doing this to Dave Bautista once on set, causing him to run away.
Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, Craig recalls the incident that scared him so much while filming Spectre. “It was a mistake. Like I said, he’s a big guy, he’s a professional wrestler, you wouldn’t really mess with him. I threw this punch, I hit him on the nose, I heard this crack and I thought, ‘Oh god no!’ and ran away. He literally did something like this. And went, ‘It’s fine.'” The “like this” line refers to Bautista casually snapping his nose back into place.
The beauty of this is Bautista previously dislocated Craig’s knee. An eye for an eye, a nose for a knee, eh?
