POLL: Which actor(s) considered for James Bond would you have liked to see play the role?

I believe this CR was intended as a pilot for a series to star Barry Nelson as a light-hearted spy, in the tradition of The Thin Man movie series with William Powell.

There was no attempt to portray the Bond of the books. TPTB simply bought IF's novel for its section dealing with a card game (easy to shoot on a TV budget) in exotic Monte Carlo.

I believe Fleming himself got involved in another attempt at a Bond TV series (more faithful to the original character) a year or two later.

 

Bradley Cooper...

 

Roger Moore was 86 and a half when filming started on A View to a Kill.

 

And he was a crappy Bond at any age.

 

This is a lie. Moore was only 86 and 3 months!

 

Moore or less.

 

Who wouldn't you like to see play James Bond ???

 

Michael Caine could have been a great Bond, IMO (he was considered for the role in 1967)

 

The names Cain, Michael Cain.

 

Sam Neill
Clive Owen

 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/18/burt-reynolds-regrets-turning-down-james-bond-role

Burt Reynolds says he regrets turning down the role of James Bond in 1970.

Appearing on the TV show Good Morning America to promote his new autobiography, But Enough About Me, the actor said he was offered the chance to take over from George Lazenby after the Australian actor quit the Bond series following his debut in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969.

"I think I could have done it well", said Reynolds, who at the time he was offered the 007 role was a relatively unknown actor. His breakout role was in Deliverance in 1972. "In my stupidity, I said, 'An American can't play James Bond, it has to be an Englishman Bond, James Bond. Nah, I can't do it.' Oops. Yeah, I could have done it."

 

One American who would have been great in the role was Ralph Meeker. Meeker as Mike Hammer in "Kiss Me Deadly" is the ultimate film noir.

If Daniel Day-Lewis can play Abraham Lincoln, the a Yank can play a British spy.

 

If you forget about the accent/Britishness, the actor who always struck me as a potentially great Bond was James Coburn

 

Steve McQueen would have been cool.

 

He's a working class guy - he was completely out of place in Thomas Crown

The whole point of Bond is that he's a Philip Marlowe who is also at home among the jet set

James Coburn would fit in there

 

Sean Connery defined BOND for me.

 

Same height as D Craig.

 

Terry Stamp and Cary Grant equal in the poll. Who knew.

Here's me thinking Jason Statham had a chance.

 

Rod Taylor.
Australia's one attempt at Bond was not a great success (although OHMSS is a great film), it would have been nice to se an actual Aussie actor have a go instead of model with no acting experience.

 

Rod would have made a good Bond, rough tough with good table manners.

 

Either way, that was the problem... he was not a number! ;-)

 

Cary Grant

Notorious (1946) T. R. Devlin -> James Bond

 

I can't help thinking that Notorious (1946) influenced Ian Fleming as much as The Small Back Room (1949) in developing Bond. Cary Grant essentially plays Bond in three films -- Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1954) and North By Northwest (1959).

I would like to have seen what John Payne did with Bond in the 1950s when he optioned Moonraker. Payne was a seriously good actor, an actor who dug much deeper into a role than most of his contemporaries. He was fit, masculine, ruggedly handsome, supremely confident yet vulnerable, and a developed a certain pathos as he matured. He would have been a very interesting Bond indeed.

The nest ... nope.

Clive Owen instead of Craig, but Craig's scripts were beneath contempt, and I'm glad Owen wasn't saddled with them.

 

Anyone British....with the exception of Cary Grant.
I cant stand the public school upper crust types this role seemed to attract though.
Its why Connery was so well received. Moores were well liked because more things blew up.

 

Lewis Collins - Wikipedia »

In the same period he was writing songs with Mike at the McCartney home, and when drummer Pete Best was dropped from The Beatles Mike McCartney suggested Collins as a possible replacement, to band member and his elder brother Paul McCartney. Turning down the option of an audition with The Beatles, Collins continued playing music on an amateur basis for a number of local bands, including The Eyes and The Georgians. In late 1964 Collins quit hairdressing to become the bass player with The Mojos (which his father managed), performing on their charting singles "Goodbye Dolly Gray" and "Until My Baby Comes Home", and relocated from Liverpool to London with them when the band appeared to have a bright future. However the band failed to chart again and broke up​