7 - James Bond (all)
The topic has already been beaten to death about Craig playing Ian Fleming's master spy, particularly his craggy, working-class (though charming) face and his hair color. The thing that I want to point out that Craig actually possesses some essential Bond qualities that none of the other portrayals attempted, which means that Sean Connery (Scottish), Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan (Irish), and George Lazenby (Aussie) were all cast against source to some degree. Here's a description by Fleming on Bond: "Certainly good-looking Rather like
Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold" And that is where the smoldering charm of Connery, the aristocratic bearing of Moore, Dalton's every-man determination, and the introspective complexity of Brosnan's performances miss ever so slightly on the original character. Bond, at his core, is a killer. He is a man capable of intense violence, as required by his profession. For all of the differences, Daniel Craig is the one Bond that fully captured the raw brutality beneath the veneer of charm and sophistication. While each man that has assumed the mantle of 007 has brought new facets to the super spy with varying levels of greatness, it can be argued that no actor has yet fully captured the vision that Ian Fleming had for his greatest creation. The true essence of Bond is probably a gestalt of 60% Connery, 20% Moore, 20% Brosnan, and 10% Craig.
