With the new James Bond movie Skyfall coming out, I thought I would deviate a little bit from the norm and discuss one of my favorite movie characters of all time. The suave, British spy seems to be an expert at anything athletic. He can hold his breath for minutes on end. He is an awesome skier, was trained as a ninja, a rock climber, can handle cars like a NASCAR driver, an expert marksman, and can handle himself against any type of fighter.

Throughout the years, there have been six actors to portray James Bond. Each have come with their own distinct qualities that have made Bond who he is. No two actors were the same. With that being said, I want to dissect which of these six actors brought the most athleticism to James Bond. Not who was the best James Bond, but for my money who was the most athletic.

So from least to best here we go:

6. Roger Moore

Roger Moore’s Bond has sometimes been viewed as the worst of the lot. I kind of like his Bond. He had a certain humor to him, but I kind of liked a lot of his movies anyways. The last couple were a little tough to watch, though. Moore stood at 6′ 1″, but I think his downfall was his age. When he started his first movie, Live or Let Die, he was already 46 years old. Not that I can talk being 5 years away from that number, but I keep my physique in pretty good shape. In the early 1970’s, Moore’s wasn’t fine tuned. By the time he did his last Bond movie, he was 58 and looking very rough during the action sequences. I would be embarrassed if I was a twenty-something henchman getting my butt kicked by this 58 year old Bond. Sorry Roger, but you are in last place in this poll.

5. Timothy Dalton

Dalton stood about 6′ 2″ and when he did his first Bond he was 43 years old. He only survived one more Bond film before calling it quits. His fight scenes weren’t bad, but there wasn’t anything that really separated him from the others, except Roger Moore.

4. Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan was offered the role in his early thirties, but because of contractual obligations with NBC he didn’t take the role until he was 42. Brosnan was also around 6′ 2″ and had the distinction during his tenure to be the lightest Bond at 164 and the heaviest at 211 (in two separate movies). The Bond movies were transitioning into physically more demanding roles for the actors and Brosnan definitely held his own in that regard. His physique wasn’t overly impressive to look at, but he could do the athletic requirements of his scenes with passability.

3. George Lazenby

This actor kind of gets forgotten about and usually one assumes he was the worst actor because he only did one movie. His acting wasn’t awesome, but the movie was pretty good and Lazenby had some decent athleticism to use in his film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Lazenby was another actor who stood 6′ 2″ and was about 31 when he assumed the role, making him the youngest actor to take on James Bond. He partly won the coveted role because when he auditioned, he was able to pull off the fight sequences with amazing authenticity. You can tell in this movie, he’s kind of brutish with his scenes. Because of this, I’m going to rank him a little higher than what others might.

2. Daniel Craig

I think you are splitting hairs between him and Sean Connery. Craig is the only actor under 6′, standing at 5′ 10″. Maybe it is the sign of the times, but his Bond has to be put through all sorts of demanding physical scenes. He was around 36, 37 when he did his first film and his very first action scene he had to chase a parkour specialist. A classic scene, but showed Craig’s running form (pretty good) and his athleticism to not mimic the parkour dude, but at least keep up with his stunts. Finally, if you ask any female they will take note that Craig’s Bond has like 9% body fat and he is cut up in all the right places. You would definitely say that Craig’s Bond is not being pushed around by just anybody and can definitely handle himself.

1. Sean Connery

The first actor to assume the role of James Bond started at 32 and held the role for much of his thirties. Connery himself was a former bodybuilder and apparently a good footballer. He was offered a pro contract at 23, but he turned it down thinking he had a better shot at being an actor. Connery stood at 6′ 2″ and what people remember most about his Bond was that he was imposing and wasn’t going to be pushed around. He had some pretty memorable fight scenes that required a lot of strength and athleticism. I guess Connery was able to call on real life experiences for that. Rumor has it that in his 20’s while working as an actor, he was getting harassed by a local gang. Eventually, 6 guys chased him until Connery decided enough was enough. He broke one guy’s arm, smashed two guy’s heads together, and after that the gang never bothered him again. Once I heard that, he moved past Craig as the number one most athletic James Bond.

Let me know what you think. This is a fun topic to comment on so feel free in the box below.