Before Spectre: Which Film Was Each James Bond Actors Best?

Sean Connery - From Russia With Love

Sean Connery was the first Bond, and for many, he remains the best largely because of this. With no predecessors and no burden of expectation, he was free to make the role his own, impressing Ian Fleming enough to give the character Scottish ancestry with the two films he starred in before the author's passing in 1964. The first of these, Dr. No, remains the most critically acclaimed entry in the series to date on RottenTomatoes, but despite kicking off the series in style, its low budget is apparent in places and the fact that many of the series' recurring traits (such as an opening song and the presence of Desmond Llewellyn's Q, to name but two) had not yet been established makes it stick out somewhat when viewed in sequence with its successors. The follow-up, From Russia With Love, was and remains almost perfect, however. A true Cold War classic, it introduces Ernst Stavro Blofeld as the mysterious head of terrorist organisation SPECTRE for the first time, though the true villain of the piece is the loathsome Russian Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), who leads a plot to both steal a cryptographic device from her countrymen and kill Bond in the process to avenge Dr. No. This sends 007 to both Istanbul and across Europe on the Orient Express train, where he engages with a number of colourful characters including the herculean Red Grant (Robert Shaw) and highly likable Turkish section head Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz), who respectively set the bar very high for all henchmen and allies in future films. Well-paced, excellent acted and with a great blend of action and intrigue, From Russia With Love didn't need the gadgets and gimmick characters that many later entries in the series, including Connery's but especially Moore's, relied upon extensively to captivate the audience. Goldfinger and Thunderball, which followed it, were well-plotted films with excellent villains, but Bond was becoming increasingly superhuman and less realistic in nature as they went on. By the time of You Only Live Twice, Connery's growing dislike of the role was becoming readily apparent on screen, and in retrospect his return to the role in Diamonds Are Forever was probably a mistake, given the film's ridiculous script that all but ruined Blofeld by having him appear alongside 'clones' (altered by plastic surgery) and in drag at one point. In summary, Connery was blessed with a higher proportion of good films than most of his successors, and the strength of these films is what still makes him the definitive Bond to this day for many. Whilst this is debateable, the status of From Russia With Love is not, as despite now being more than fifty years old, it is still one of the greatest spy films to have ever graced the silver screen, holding its own against competitors new and old with its gripping narrative.