6. Jeremy Irons
It is believed Irons was offered to play Bond but refused for fear of being typecast. Which is probably a justifiable fear but also a terrific shame. For Irons would have made a marvellous James Bond, surely bringing forth a singularly unique approach to the spy franchise. Irons is probably too good an actor to play Bond. But maybe thats what the Bond films need. An intensity, a higher quality of acting, and acting which subjugates the set, the gadgets, even the girls to their rightful place as accessories in the Bond persona. Irons has an easy, affable charm that is altogether Bondish, He also possesses the natural flair for diplomacy of a Jeremy Clarkson and would surely indulge the Bond franchise with so many off-screen guffaws and bloopers he would have us all in stitches. Great as hero or villain (remember Claus Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune) Irons should at least have been in a Bond film by now. But Bond has never been about getting the best actors involved and Irons career has probably been the better for it.