Surely the most underrated Bond of them all is Timothy Dalton, who only starred in the role twice (The Living Daylights and License to Kill), and subsequently hung up the role during the ridiculous 6-year gap between License and Goldeneye. Dalton rarely ranks high among the best Bonds, and that's likely because he never really got a chance to prove himself and be truly accepted as Bond (three appears to be the magic number). If some of the better Bonds like Connery and Craig had only done two movies before quitting, would they be held in the same esteem that they are? Absolutely not. It likely doesn't help that Dalton's movies are relatively middle-of-the-road fare (with the dark, violent License proving especially divisive), yet Dalton is largely agreed to be the closest to Ian Fleming's original written version of the character, considerably more caustic than the Roger Moore Bond which preceded him. As his films have been re-evaluated, Dalton has received more respect from critics over the years for his work as Bond, even if he'll never be as recognised as Connery, Moore, Brosnan or Craig.