Random Heresy

Timothy Dalton was too bland, Pierce Brosnan is fine but the movies have grown stale, and Roger Moore was fun, but, especially in his later films, a little too campy. It would be hard to make an argument for someone other than Sean Connery as the best James Bond. He had a grace and easy charm that defined the way the public imagines James Bond.

Barring a moment of career-defining stupidity, though, George Lazenby could have been the best Bond. Lazenby's single appearance as Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, still stands as one of my favorite Bond movies. It had a dark, emotional ending, a more human Bond, and all the action and subterfuge that fans expect from 007.

Instead of Connery's easy charisma, though, Lazenby had physical presence and a physical style that seemed to be fitting for a secret agent--and for a neophyte actor, he did a good job as a leading man. It's easy to imagine that he could have grown nicely into the roll, perhaps even coming to redefine our vision of Bond.

Instead, Lazenby decided that Bond was a dying franchise and that he would do better to pursue career opportunities elsewhere. A peek at his resume since On Her Majesty's Secret Service proves how wrong he was. Instead, Connery came back to do Diamonds are Forever and then Roger Moore took over with Live and Let Die. Talk about your bad decisions.