Previous Post Quote: While its true Niven might have been Flemming's original choice, Fleming certainly liked Connery's performance after he saw it in Dr No. In fact, he gave Bond Scottish ancestry in the OHMSS book in honour of Connery. And he made a very favourable mention of David Niven in "You Only Live Twice" (apparently the only such mention of a Hollywood actor), which was published in 1964, two years after the release of "Dr. No". Quote: If you've ever seen Roger Moore run in a bond film, he runs like a girl:-) Well, Roger Moore was my first film Bond (I'm one of those rare birds in my generation and younger who read most of the novels before watching any of the movies), I've seen most of his movies, so maybe I'm more inclined in his favour or our tastes are just different. It is perhaps a bit sacrilegious to say it so soon after Sir Sean's passing, but IMO the best James Bond so far was Pierce Brosnan, who to my mind combined the best elements of his four predecessors in his portrayal. But I console myself by reminding myself that Sean Connery himself felt rather ambiguous about Bond and noting that as an actor he definitely improved with age (for instance, I actually prefer "Never Say Never Again" (the remake) to "Thunderball"). Incidentally, my three favourite films starring Sean Connery are 3. The Name of the Rose 2. Robin and Marian 1. The Man Who Would Be King

Hmmm, funnily enough, Peirce Brosnen is my least favourite Bond, though not really through any fault of his own. By the time he became Bond, the movie Bondian elements has become such a stereotype that he couldn't help but become a caricature of Bond. What people had come to expect Bond to be.

Roger Moore was my first Bond as well. I do like him, but in my old age I came to see how miscast he was.

I've always felt that both Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton were able to demonstrate the grittier aspects of Bond from the novels. I still remember in "the Spy who loved me" how the police officer describes Bond as just as ruthless and cruel as the gangsters he defeated. Only Bond happens to be on the good guys side.

One element of the Bond from the novels that I've felt none of the movie Bonds got right was the lonliness of Bond. In the novels, he just as often doesn't get the girl as he gets her. Like in Moonraker where the female agent just rejects him. To me, the novels present him as a much colder and heartless as things go on, but the films avoid that, maybe for good reason.