James Bond Actors in Order: Every 007 From Connery to Craig

Six actors have played James Bond in the 25 EON Productions films, and in order of debut they are Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Two films fall outside that official run: Casino Royale (1967), a spoof with David Niven as Sir James Bond, and Never Say Never Again (1983), directed by Irvin Kershner, in which Connery returned for an independent retelling of the Thunderball story.

The simplest way to read the James Bond actors in chronological order is by the year each one first took the role, with the years taken from the first and last UK premiere in each run. Roger Moore made the most EON films (seven) and Daniel Craig held the role longest in the official series (2006 to 2021).

Bond is a British franchise, so every film below carries a UK premiere and a US release, which often sit weeks or months apart. A date described as reported has not been confirmed, and a confirmed date is stated plainly. Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012) and No Time to Die (2021) are given as UK general releases, because their premieres came a few days earlier. If you want the films themselves in sequence, the james bond movies in order guide covers that, and the james bond movies hub lists every title.

Sean Connery was the first actor to play James Bond in the EON series, and he starred in six official films between 1962 and 1971. He opened with Dr. No (1962), directed by Terence Young, with a UK premiere reported as 7 October 1962 and a US release reported as 8 May 1963. The budget was $1 million and the film earned about $59.6 million worldwide, which was enough to start a franchise. Young returned for From Russia with Love (1963), where the budget doubled to $2 million, with a UK premiere reported as 11 October 1963 and a US release reported as 8 April 1964. He also directed Thunderball (1965), made on $9 million, with a UK premiere reported as 28 December 1965 and a US release reported as 21 December 1965.

Goldfinger (1964), directed by Guy Hamilton, is where the formula came together: an Aston Martin loaded with gadgets, a golf match against Auric Goldfinger, and the silent henchman Oddjob. It had a UK premiere reported as 20 September 1964 and a US release on 22 December 1964, cost $3 million and earned about $124.9 million worldwide. Thunderball later won the Oscar for Special Visual Effects (John Stears) at the 38th Academy Awards. You Only Live Twice (1967), directed by Lewis Gilbert, added the armed mini autogyro Little Nellie, with a UK premiere reported as 13 June 1967 and a US release on 13 June 1967. Diamonds Are Forever (1971), directed again by Hamilton, sent Bond to Amsterdam and Las Vegas, with a UK premiere reported as 30 December 1971 and a US release reported as 17 December 1971.

Connery came back once more for Never Say Never Again (1983), made by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm with Kevin McClory as executive producer. It had a US release on 7 October 1983 and a UK premiere reported as 15 December 1983, and it earned about $160 million worldwide on a $36 million budget. Because EON did not make it, the official count for Connery stays at six. That same year Roger Moore's Octopussy was also in theaters, so two Bond films competed for audiences.

David Niven played James Bond in Casino Royale (1967), a spoof outside the official series in which he is billed third, behind Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress. Producer Charles K. Feldman owned the rights to Ian Fleming's novel and made the film separately from EON. Five directors are credited: Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath and Robert Parrish. The UK premiere is reported as 23 April 1967 and the US release was 28 April 1967.

Niven's Sir James Bond has retired when the heads of the British, American, Soviet and French secret services ask him to stop SMERSH. His plan is to give the name James Bond 007 to several agents so the enemy cannot tell which one is real, and that is how Sellers ends up playing the baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble. TCM reports that Sellers and Orson Welles, who plays Le Chiffre, never filmed together. The budget was $12 million and the film earned about $41.7 million worldwide. Burt Bacharach composed the score, and Dusty Springfield sings The Look of Love. Niven made only this one appearance, and it sits beside the official Bond actors rather than among them.

George Lazenby is the only actor to play James Bond in a single EON film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), directed by Peter R. Hunt. The UK premiere is reported as 18 December 1969 and the US release is reported as 18 December 1969. The film runs 142 minutes, cost $8 million and earned about $82 million worldwide, and it marked Hunt's debut as a director.

The cast around Lazenby is deep: Diana Rigg plays Tracy di Vicenzo, Telly Savalas plays Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and Gabriele Ferzetti plays the crime boss Marc Ange Draco. The hunt for Blofeld leads to a clinic on a mountaintop in the Swiss Alps, which gives the film its ski chase and its alpine set pieces. John Barry scored it, and Louis Armstrong sings We Have All the Time in the World. Connery returned for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), so Lazenby's single appearance sits neatly between two Connery runs.

Roger Moore played Bond in seven EON films, more than any other actor in the official series. His first, Live and Let Die (1973), directed by Guy Hamilton, had a UK premiere reported as 6 July 1973 and a US release on 27 June 1973. It cost $7 million, earned about $161.8 million worldwide, and carries a title song by Wings (Paul and Linda McCartney) over a score by George Martin. Hamilton also directed The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), with a UK premiere reported as 19 December 1974 and a US release reported as 18 December 1974. It features the astro spiral car jump in an AMC Hornet, a stunt Guinness World Records recognizes as the first of its kind on film.

Lewis Gilbert directed The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), with a UK premiere reported as 20 July 1977 and a US release reported as 13 July 1977, and Moonraker (1979), with a UK premiere reported as 27 June 1979 and a US release reported as 29 June 1979. The first gave Bond a Lotus Esprit that turns into a submarine, and that prop later sold at auction for $989,000 to Elon Musk. Moonraker cost $31 million and earned about $210.3 million worldwide, the biggest total of any Moore film.

John Glen then took over for For Your Eyes Only (1981), with a UK premiere reported as 24 June 1981 and a US release on 26 June 1981, Octopussy (1983), with a UK premiere reported as 5 June 1983 and a US release reported as 10 June 1983, and A View to a Kill (1985), with a UK premiere reported as 13 June 1985 and a US release reported as 24 May 1985. A View to a Kill was Moore's last outing as Bond. Jaws, played by Richard Kiel, appeared in two Moore films, and Yaphet Kotto's Kananga and Christopher Walken's Max Zorin supplied the villains at either end of the run.

Timothy Dalton played Bond in two EON films, The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989), both directed by John Glen. Mental Floss reports that NBC held Pierce Brosnan to his Remington Steele contract, which is why Timothy Dalton was cast as Bond in The Living Daylights. The film had a UK premiere reported as 29 June 1987 and a US release on 31 July 1987. It cost $40 million and earned about $191.2 million worldwide. The story starts with a training exercise in Gibraltar and moves to Bratislava, where Bond helps General Georgi Koskov defect and spares the cellist Kara Milovy, played by Maryam d'Abo. The songs come from a-ha and The Pretenders.

Licence to Kill had a UK premiere reported as 13 June 1989 and a US release on 14 July 1989. It cost $42 million and earned about $156.2 million worldwide. The film follows Bond after he refuses M's order to drop a revenge mission against the drug lord Franz Sanchez, played by Robert Davi, with a young Benicio del Toro as Dario. It was rated PG-13 in the US and 15 in the UK, a harder certificate than the PG ratings of the films before it. Michael Kamen composed the score and Gladys Knight sings the title song.

Pierce Brosnan played Bond in four EON films between 1995 and 2002, and each had a different director. GoldenEye (1995), directed by Martin Campbell, had a UK premiere reported as 23 November 1995 and a US release on 17 November 1995. It cost $60 million and earned about $352.2 million worldwide. It also brought in Judi Dench as M, Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan, Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp and a tank chase, with a score by Éric Serra.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), directed by Roger Spottiswoode, had a UK premiere reported as 11 December 1997 and a US release on 19 December 1997. It set Bond against the media tycoon Elliot Carver, played by Jonathan Pryce, and paired him with Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin. It cost $110 million and earned about $333 million worldwide. The World Is Not Enough (1999), directed by Michael Apted, had a UK premiere reported as 26 November 1999 and a US release reported as 19 November 1999. It opens with a boat chase along the Thames, cost $135 million, earned about $361.8 million worldwide, and was the last film for Desmond Llewelyn, who died in December 1999 aged 85 after 17 Bond appearances as Q. John Cleese appears as R.

Die Another Day (2002), directed by Lee Tamahori, had a UK premiere reported as 17 November 2002 and a US release reported as 22 November 2002. It had the largest budget of the four at $142 million and earned about $432 million worldwide, with Halle Berry as Jinx and Madonna on the title song. Every Brosnan film earned at least about $333 million worldwide.

Daniel Craig played Bond in five EON films, and his run from 2006 to 2021 is the longest span of any actor in the official series. Casino Royale (2006), directed by Martin Campbell, begins with Bond earning his 00 status. It had a UK premiere reported as 16 November 2006 and a US release on 17 November 2006, cost $150 million and earned about $606.4 million worldwide. Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd, and Mads Mikkelsen plays Le Chiffre across a Texas hold 'em tournament at the Casino Royale in Montenegro.

Quantum of Solace (2008), directed by Marc Forster, had a London world premiere reported for 29 October, a UK general release reported as 31 October 2008 and a US release on 14 November 2008. It runs 106 minutes, cost $200 million and earned about $589.6 million worldwide. Chile's Baquedano area stood in for Bolivia. Skyfall (2012), directed by Sam Mendes, had its world premiere in London on 23 October 2012, a UK general release on 26 October 2012 and a US release reported as 9 November 2012. It cost $200 million and earned about $1.11 billion worldwide, the biggest total of any Bond film. Adele's title song won the Oscar for Best Original Song on 24 February 2013, the first Bond theme to do so.

Spectre (2015), also directed by Mendes, had a UK premiere reported as 26 October 2015 and a US release reported as 6 November 2015. It cost $245 million and earned about $879.1 million worldwide. It opens in Mexico City during the Day of the Dead, and Guinness recognizes a record explosion built in Erfoud. No Time to Die (2021), directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, had its London premiere at the Royal Albert Hall on 28 September 2021, a UK general release on 30 September 2021 and a US release on 8 October 2021. At 163 minutes it is the longest of the 25 EON films, with a score by Hans Zimmer and a title song by Billie Eilish. It cost $250 million and earned about $758.9 million worldwide.

Roger Moore is the longest serving James Bond by film count, with seven EON films from 1973 to 1985, and Daniel Craig has the longest span, with five films from 2006 to 2021. Moore's run went from a UK premiere in July 1973 to a UK premiere in June 1985, just under twelve years, which works out at a Bond film roughly every two years.

Craig's five films stretched from the UK premiere in November 2006 to the UK release in September 2021, almost fifteen years, with gaps of up to six years in between. Connery made six EON films across roughly nine years, from 1962 to 1971. If Never Say Never Again counts, his span stretches to just over twenty one years and seven films, although only six of those are official. Brosnan's four films fit inside about seven years. So, the answer depends on whether you count films, years or the official series only.

Pierce Brosnan is the best documented casting near miss in the series: NBC kept him tied to Remington Steele while Timothy Dalton was cast in The Living Daylights (1987). Mental Floss reports that NBC held Brosnan to that contract, and Brosnan took the part eight years later in GoldenEye.

That makes it a story about a scheduling block rather than a refusal. If you are looking for the other end of the casting question, the next james bond movie page tracks who is being considered now.

No actor has been announced as the next James Bond, and Amazon MGM Studios has given no title or release date for the untitled film known as Bond 26. Amazon MGM has creative control, Denis Villeneuve was named director in June 2025 (NPR), Steven Knight is writing, Amy Pascal and David Heyman are producing, and Nina Gold is casting director. Pascal has indicated a UK shoot (Screen Daily, March 2026).

TheWrap, citing insiders, reported on 22 October 2026 that final screen tests were under way. It names Jack Lowden, Callum Turner and Josh O'Connor as three of the four actors testing, and reports that Jacob Elordi is out of the screen tests, which is not the same as turning the role down. These are unconfirmed reports, and RTE notes that Amazon MGM has confirmed none of the names. The next james bond movie page tracks the status as it changes, and the james bond cast page lists the current ensemble.

In my opinion, the ranking runs Connery, Craig, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Lazenby and Niven, and the reasons come down to how well each actor's films were built. This is a taste call, so it could be argued either way.

1. Sean Connery. Goldfinger assembled the full machine on a $3 million budget: the gadget car, the golf match, Oddjob and a villain with a plan. Every later Bond film reuses that engine, and Connery sold it with a straight face.

2. Daniel Craig. Perhaps the broadest range of any Bond, from a stripped down start in Casino Royale (2006) to Skyfall's $1.11 billion. Spectre's record explosion and the continuing story across five films show a franchise that trusted its star with more than quips.

3. Roger Moore. Seven films, and the astro spiral jump in The Man with the Golden Gun and the Lotus Esprit submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me are practical set pieces I would happily rewatch. The humor sometimes outruns the danger, but the engineering is excellent.

4. Timothy Dalton. Two films, and Licence to Kill, with its 15 rating in the UK, is the sharpest revenge story in the series. It earned less than The Living Daylights, but it deserves a second look.

5. Pierce Brosnan. GoldenEye is a strong reset, with a tank chase and a real rival in Sean Bean. The later films lean harder on spectacle, though each still earned at least about $333 million.

6. George Lazenby. One film, and it holds up well, with the ski chase and Diana Rigg. He ranks here only because a sample of one is thin.

7. David Niven. He is last because Casino Royale (1967) is a comedy outside the series, and comparing a spoof lead to action leads is not a fair test of talent.

If you want one film per Bond, try Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Live and Let Die, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye and Casino Royale (2006), then check the james bond movies ranked page for film by film verdicts.