# Timothy Dalton was a Great James Bond



## Synthaholic

More evidence that, had he started a few years earlier and had more 007 movies under his belt, he would have contended as the best Bond ever.  Unfortunately, legal problems plagued the studio during his time.









Timothy Dalton took over the part of James Bond at a time when the  EON film series had veered far away from their literary source, and  approached the role with the Ian Fleming novels and stories as the  essence and foundation. In the press conference that officially  introduced Timothy Dalton as the new James Bond, the actor noted that "I  approached this project [the film *The Living Daylights*] with a sense of responsibility to the work of Ian Fleming."

He went on to discuss his interpretation of the Bond role further:   "The essential quality of James Bond is a man who lives on the edgehe  never knows when, at any moment, he might be killed. Therefore, I think  some of the qualities we might associate with Bond, the qualities we´ve  seen in this series of movies, the qualities that Ian Fleming wrote so  well about, reflect that sense of danger in his own lifethe qualities  of the man are very much the qualities of someone who lives on the edge  of his life." In the novel _Moonraker_, Fleming describes Bond´s  "ambition to have as little as possible in his banking account when he  was killed, as, when he was depressed, he knew he would be, before the  statutory age of forty-five."

In _Live and Let Die_, Ian Fleming writes that there are times  when a secret agent "takes refuge in good living to efface the memory of  danger and the shadow of death."  Dalton captures this idea of somebody  who lives in "the shadow of death." Within the parameters of the  scripts he was given, in his two cinematic appearances as James Bond,  Timothy Dalton brought a welcome course correction to the film series,  porting the core essence of Ian Fleming´s immortal secret agent to the  screen.  

In Fleming´s writing, James Bond is vulnerable to the sheer  tension that the danger of his job inspires. Fleming writes of this in  "The Living Daylights," the short story that inspired the first Dalton  007 film, with Bond returning to the apartment in Berlin where he must  assassinate a KGB sniper, and gives "a light hearted account of his day  while an artery near his solar plexus began thumping gently as tension  build up inside him like a watch-spring tightening." 








While on the job and building up to a potentially deadly situation,  Fleming´s Bond is a curt, focused professional. Dalton portrays this  best in the introductory sections of *The Living Daylights*, often  in smaller movements or gestures. As Bond and Saunders ("Head of Station  V, Vienna") are about to step into the door of the building where 007  must kill the sniper, Dalton coolly glances both ways down the street,  scanning for threats, and does the same briefly when they enter the  ground floor room. "Turn off the lights," he almost snaps to Saunders,  capturing some   of the displeasure Bond feels in Fleming´s short story, where 007 notes  the sight of Captain Paul Sender´s tie (the Saunders equivalent in the  short story) and his "spirits, already low, sank another degreeHe knew  the type: backbone of the civil service; over-crammed and under-loved at  Winchester" His opinion of Saunders as an officious bureaucrat is  revealed in Dalton´s contemptuous glance at him and curt tone as he  counters Saunder´s assumption of ammunition type with "No, the  steel-tipped. KGB snipers usually wear body armour."

Dalton shows the mild contempt through his clipped responses to  Saunders, while allowing the buried coilsprings of tension to surface,  in sometimes subtle ways. There is a small, almost imperceptible moment,  where Dalton sits on the bed, preparing his sniper rifle, and his  fingers slip as he loads the bullets into the rifle cartridge. Perhaps  my favourite moment where Dalton portrays this subsurface tension is  where he, sniper rifle in hand and ready for the kill, turns to  Saunders, exhales distinctly, and quietly asks him to "Bring the chair."  Compare that moment with Fleming´s Daylights: "Bond said, Yes.´ He  said it softly. The scent of the enemy, the need to take care, already  had him by the nerves."

Fleming´s Bond takes brief refuge in sensual, carnal pleasures to  help steel his nerves for the coming confrontation. In the beginning of  the film version, which follows the basic plot of the short story,  Dalton scans the crowd at a music recital, looking for the defector  Koskov, and casually notes the "lovely girl with the cello." His  expression while he says the line is a small, tight-lipped smile, an  indication of the underlying tension as he gratefully takes in the  beauty of Kara Milovy. 

An underlying distaste and loathing for his profession also manifests  in Fleming´s Bond stories, and this is another facet that Dalton brings  to the screen. After Saunders expresses his anger at Bond´s  commandeering of Koskov´s rescue and threatens to report to M that he  deliberately missed shooting Kara, Dalton snaps back "Stuff my orders. I  only kill professionalsGo ahead, tell him what you want. If he fires  me, I´ll thank him for it." Dalton´s forceful delivery of this dialogue,  tinged with an edge of cruelty and contempt, brings out James Bond´s  uneasy relationship with the hard, soul-eroding surfaces of his double-o  status. 

Dalton is helped by similarities to some lines from the Fleming  original: "Look, my friend," said Bond wearily, "I´ve got to commit a  murder tonight. Not you. Me. So be a good chap and stuff it, would you?  You can tell Tanqueray anything  you like when it´s over. Think I like  this job? Having a Double-O number and so  on? I´d be quite happy for  you to get me sacked from the Double-O Section. Then I could settle down  and make a snug nest of papers as an ordinary Staffer. Right?"  (Sidenote: It´s amazingly easy to imagine Dalton delivering those lines  exactly as written by Ian Fleming.)

Fleming´s Bond has an uneasy relationship with the killing that is a necessary part of the job of a double-o. In Chapter I of _Goldfinger_,  Fleming details Bond´s self-reflection after completing a kill for Her  Majesty´s Secret Service: "It was part of his profession to kill people.  He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well  as he knew how and forgot about it." Though it is "his duty to be as  cool about death as a surgeon," James Bond finds himself running the  death over and over in his head, a signal that a part of the secret  agent is uncomfortable with executing his licence to kill. Dalton´s  performance in the opening of *The Living Daylights* captures this  weariness, this tense introspectiveness, and brings it out through his  clipped, almost cynical line delivery, quietly bringing to the surface  the Bond that has an inner struggle between professional killer and the  regret that lingers in his soul.





Much more at the link.


----------



## Synthaholic

Timothy Dalton truly understood the James Bond character, as written by Ian Fleming.  And he is by far the most accomplished actor to ever play the role.  His background in theater really dwarfs all the others, including Sean Connery.  Most people would never guess that Dalton made his debut in the same project that Anthony Hopkins made his debut.


----------



## ginscpy

He sucked.

Only good one was the orig.


----------



## Synthaholic

ginscpy said:


> He sucked.
> 
> Only good one was the orig.


You didn't even read this.  You're just a superficial moron.


----------



## Synthaholic

Timothy Dalton - James Bond Wiki


Timothy Dalton's James Bond was a major departure from Roger Moore's. Dalton went back to the Fleming source novels  for his inspiration. His Bond was dark, moody, flinty and focused on  the job at hand, a job that he sometimes found distasteful. *Dalton chose  to cut puns and jokes from his Bond scripts, and with his formal  training focused, instead, on the sub-text.* His Bond did not careen from  stunt to stunt, unchanged, but changed through the movie. Bond was  ruthless and a bit of a cad, lying about his relationship to a defector  to the man's mistress to obtain information, and then having no qualms  about seducing her later. All those years playing Byronic "mystery men"  payed off when Bond would allow himself brief, efficient romantic  scenes.

Two moments in "The Living Daylights" typify Dalton's Bond. The first--his reaction to the death of Vienna Agent Saunders  moments after the two have dropped their mutual hostility and come to  respect each other. Kneeling over the agent's body, a stray balloon  bearing the mocking words "Smiert Spionem" ("Death to Spies") sails into  the scene. Bond's anger boils over as he squeezes the balloon to  bursting. The pop snaps Bond to action as, seeing a cluster of balloons  over a hedge. He leaps over it, gun drawn to blast the assassin, only to  find a mother and child who shrink from his aggression. Still seething  with adrenaline, Dalton's Bond attempts to pull himself together,  scanning the crowd, and in the ensuing exchange with the innocent dupe, Kara Millovy,  Dalton and Fleming's Bond fuse. "Yes," he bitterly hisses between his  teeth. "I got the message." And Dalton makes real the passage Fleming  used over and over to describe Bond's resolve: "His eyes became fierce  slits."

The other is Bond's confrontation with KGB chief Pushkin  (John Rhys-Davies), using the Russian's assignation with his mistress as  a ruse. Pushkin is forced into an awkward position as Bond hovers over  him, gun pointed at his temple. Dalton's Bond is wound tight,  practically vibrating with tension, any distraction causing him to  whirl, his outstretched gun searching wildly for a target, dangerous to  the extreme. When Pushkin alerts his bodyguard to trouble, Bond brutally  attacks Pushkin, then rips at the mistress' robe to make her naked form  a distraction for the entering guard, who is brutally pistol-whipped.  It's a tense scene, made more so by Dalton's barely-contained savagery  and explosions of remorseless violence. The ensuing gavel sounds that  make audiences jump is a credit to the effectiveness of Dalton's Bond.

*At  the time, Dalton said, "It's very important to make the man believable  so you can stretch the fantasy. Whether people like this kind of Bond is  another question."*


----------



## Politico

Synthaholic said:


> ginscpy said:
> 
> 
> 
> He sucked.
> 
> Only good one was the orig.
> 
> 
> 
> You didn't even read this.  You're just a superficial moron.
Click to expand...


This is an opinion article. You can easily read it and still think he sucked.


----------



## ginscpy

Any opinions on the worst Bond?

Mine is George Lazenby.


----------



## koshergrl

I've never been all that into James Bond...until the other night when I ran across Never Say Never Again and started watching it. It was pretty funny to watch Sean Connery as james bond dealing with aging...at a spa, getting his back cracked, eating healthy foods, talking about enemas, lol, pigging out on food he smuggled in with his pretty but definitely middle aged chiropractor...who he later rolls into bed with.

I liked that. Sadly, that's as far as I got because I fell sound asleep withing 20 minutes of the opening credits...as I always do. I think James Bond must be a guy thing.

But I LOVE Goldmember!


----------



## tinydancer

Dalton had the eyes. I fell in love with Timothy Dalton wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back. 

It was an odd movie. I loved it so much.


----------



## Synthaholic

Dalton turned down the James Bond role 3 times before finally accepting:



In 1968, he was first offered to test for the role of 007 in _On Her Majesty's Secret Service_, but declined saying that, at 24, he was too young for the part, and sighting the formidable task of following in Sean Connery's considerable foot-steps (As we all know, George Lazenby had no such qualms).



Roger Moore balked at returning to play Bond in For Your Eyes Only, which would mark a new direction for Bond after the high-flying Moonraker. Once again, Dalton was asked to audition but declined, owing to stage commitments-always his first love.



Roger Moore officially hung up his Walther with A View to a Kill, and a new Bond was being pursued for the next film,The Living Daylights.  Once again, Dalton was asked to audition...and did, impressing the Bond  producers and United Artists. But, Dalton's commitment to the  over-schedule Brooke Shields vehicle "Brenda Starr" (playing another  "mystery man," the eye-patched Basil St. John) meant that he could not  be on set when filming commenced. Bond impresario Albert R. Broccoli, with an "in-stone" opening would not wait, and hired Pierce Brosnan, a popular choice as star of the recently-cancelled "Remington Steele," to play Bond. Strike Three for Dalton.



But in Hollywood, there's "cancelled" and then there's "cancelled." With  the announcement of Brosnan as Bond, the "Steele" producers and  television network NBC decided to make hay on the news, announcing they  would revive the series as a handful of "mini-movies" and Brosnan, under  contract, was committed to them. Broccoli did not want his lucrative  film-series competing with his Bond on TV, so opted out of the Brosnan  deal. Dalton was again approached, "Brenda Starr" nearing completion,  and second unit work commencing on "The Living Daylights."  By extending the second unit work, Broccoli could maintain his  schedule, and still have Dalton in Gibraltar to shoot close-ups. Dalton  finished work on "Brenda Starr" on a Saturday, flew to Gibraltar on  Sunday, and was James Bond Monday morning.


----------



## Mad Scientist

I'm guessing only the OP thinks Timothy Dalton was the best James Bond, and that's ok.


----------



## Synthaholic

Mad Scientist said:


> I'm guessing only the OP thinks Timothy Dalton was the best James Bond, and that's ok.


I swear, none of you RWers can read.  

Where have I claimed he was the best Bond?


----------



## Synthaholic

Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.


----------



## daveman

I never could take Dalton seriously as Bond.  He looks too much like Martin Short:


----------



## daveman

Synthaholic said:


> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.


Yes, because that's MUCH easier to believe than the simple explanation that not everyone shares your opinion of Dalton as Bond.


----------



## koshergrl

daveman said:


> I never could take Dalton seriously as Bond. He looks too much like Martin Short:


 
Crap!


----------



## daveman

Sorry if I ruined him for you, kg.


----------



## Synthaholic

daveman said:


> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, because that's MUCH easier to believe than the simple explanation that not everyone shares your opinion of Dalton as Bond.
Click to expand...

He was the closest one to Fleming's books.

He was also the tallest, at 6'2".  I believe Daniel Craig is the shortest.

Connery and Lazenby both look taller than Dalton, and Roger Moore looks shorter than Craig.

I like them all and think they all have their strengths (except maybe Lazenby).  I just find no weaknesses in Dalton's version, except the script of "License To Kill".


----------



## ginscpy

IMO - Roger Moore will always be The Saint.

Loved those cornball openings when the halo appears over his head.

Thats why he was wrong for the Bond role.  

Too closely identified with Simon Templar.


----------



## daveman

Synthaholic said:


> daveman said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, because that's MUCH easier to believe than the simple explanation that not everyone shares your opinion of Dalton as Bond.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> He was the closest one to Fleming's books.
> 
> He was also the tallest, at 6'2".  I believe Daniel Craig is the shortest.
> 
> Connery and Lazenby both look taller than Dalton, and Roger Moore looks shorter than Craig.
> 
> I like them all and think they all have their strengths (except maybe Lazenby).  I just find no weaknesses in Dalton's version, except the script of "License To Kill".
Click to expand...

Craig is my favorite.  He brings a humanity that the others lack.  He's not perfect the way the others were.

With Craig, Bond has a painful past.  And it shows.


----------



## ginscpy

It's not even a contest.

Connery was the best.


----------



## jillian

Synthaholic said:


> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.



sorry, synth... i have to go with sean connery... even ian fleming thought that he epitomized the character.


----------



## Synthaholic

jillian said:


> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> sorry, synth... i have to go with sean connery... even ian fleming thought that he epitomized the character.
Click to expand...

He didn't live long enough to see Dalton's portrayal.

I think people naturally pick Connery because:

He was excellent.

It's their introduction to the character.  And he played it long enough to imprint and ingrain on everyone that he was Bond, and everyone after was someone else trying to be Bond.


----------



## ginscpy

Only Connery could say:   "My name is Bond.  James Bond."


----------



## Swagger

Until the arrival of Craig, Dalton was my favourite Bond. Still is, in some respect. Connery's Bond was far too suave to reflect the sadistic nature of Flemming's creation. And it almost boils my blood when some halfwit claims Moore delivered the most convincing portrayal. He didn't. He was nothing more than a comedian whose eyebrows did all the work. Dalton was different, in that he actually read Flemming's work and strived to bring Flemming's violent and selfish character to life. His only fault was that his Bond didn't shed all the unnecessary glamour and gloss of his predecessors. 

Craig's Bond is raw and Machiavellian. He's not child-friendly and relies almost entirely on his intuition, spycraft and guts, as opposed to all those daft gadgets. His appearance is more convincing, too. His predecessors all looked as though they'd been selected from a troupe off ballroom dancers, whereas Craig's Bond looks like he's been put through his paces - and broken - by a determined drill instructor.


----------



## ginscpy

I saw my first Bond film in 1965.

Thunderball.

When I came of age.


----------



## Synthaholic

Swagger said:


> Until the arrival of Craig, Dalton was my favourite Bond. Still is, in some respect. Connery's Bond was far too suave to reflect the sadistic nature of Flemming's creation. And it almost boils my blood when some halfwit claims Moore delivered the most convincing portrayal. He didn't. He was nothing more than a comedian whose eyebrows did all the work. Dalton was different, in that he actually read Flemming's work and strived to bring Flemming's violent and selfish character to life. His only fault was that his Bond didn't shed all the unnecessary glamour and gloss of his predecessors.
> 
> Craig's Bond is raw and Machiavellian. He's not child-friendly and relies almost entirely on his intuition, spycraft and guts, as opposed to all those daft gadgets. His appearance is more convincing, too. His predecessors all looked as though they'd been selected from a troupe off ballroom dancers, whereas Craig's Bond looks like he's been put through his paces - and broken - by a determined drill instructor.


Someone else who gets it, and gets Fleming's Bond.

Another thing to point out is that Dalton personally removed the wisecracks and bad puns from the scripts that had gotten ridiculous under Connery and especially Moore.


----------



## Harry Dresden

Synthaholic said:


> ginscpy said:
> 
> 
> 
> He sucked.
> 
> Only good one was the orig.
> 
> 
> 
> You didn't even read this.  You're just a superficial moron.
Click to expand...


.....you noticed?......with an emphasis on Moron....


----------



## jillian

Synthaholic said:


> jillian said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> sorry, synth... i have to go with sean connery... even ian fleming thought that he epitomized the character.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> He didn't live long enough to see Dalton's portrayal.
> 
> I think people naturally pick Connery because:
> 
> He was excellent.
> 
> It's their introduction to the character.  And he played it long enough to imprint and ingrain on everyone that he was Bond, and everyone after was someone else trying to be Bond.
Click to expand...


yeah, but fleming modified the character so it was more like sean connery. 

dalton isn't one of my favorites.


----------



## Harry Dresden

daveman said:


> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> daveman said:
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, because that's MUCH easier to believe than the simple explanation that not everyone shares your opinion of Dalton as Bond.
> 
> 
> 
> He was the closest one to Fleming's books.
> 
> He was also the tallest, at 6'2".  I believe Daniel Craig is the shortest.
> 
> Connery and Lazenby both look taller than Dalton, and Roger Moore looks shorter than Craig.
> 
> I like them all and think they all have their strengths (except maybe Lazenby).  I just find no weaknesses in Dalton's version, except the script of "License To Kill".
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Craig is my favorite.  He brings a humanity that the others lack.  He's not perfect the way the others were.
> 
> With Craig, Bond has a painful past.  And it shows.
Click to expand...

yea i iike Craig too....but i like Dalton also.....


----------



## tinydancer

ginscpy said:


> IMO - Roger Moore will always be The Saint.
> 
> Loved those cornball openings when the halo appears over his head.
> 
> Thats why he was wrong for the Bond role.
> 
> Too closely identified with Simon Templar.



I love you to death.  Someone who knows Simon Templar. 

If I could I would bear your children. Shoot I'm cougar age. I'll give you money

I adore Roger Moore but he was never Fleming's Bond. It's nice to meet someone on a board who knows who Simon Templar aka the Saint is. 

I loved that series.


----------



## Liability

Connery was the classic.  The present incarnation, Daniel Craig, is actually quite good.  Dalton was ok.  Pierce _Remington Steele_ Brosnan was actually very good, too.


----------



## tinydancer

Synthaholic said:


> Timothy Dalton truly understood the James Bond character, as written by Ian Fleming.  And he is by far the most accomplished actor to ever play the role.  His background in theater really dwarfs all the others, including Sean Connery.  Most people would never guess that Dalton made his debut in the same project that Anthony Hopkins made his debut.



When I first saw Dalton, Heathcliff came alive to me. It was like he dashed out of the pages. I love to read and there are not many actors who can translate a book that I've loved into a movie.

I agree with the OP. Dalton was Fleming's Bond. You have to understand it from the writer's view point. 

That's where Sync is bang on the money. 

Now Connery was brilliant. Of that there is no doubt. He took the carachter sp? and not only did he run with it, he made a marathon out of it. 

And you can give me Ramirez any day.  But the OP is right on Dalton and Fleming's Bond.


----------



## daveman

Harry Dresden said:


> daveman said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> He was the closest one to Fleming's books.
> 
> He was also the tallest, at 6'2".  I believe Daniel Craig is the shortest.
> 
> Connery and Lazenby both look taller than Dalton, and Roger Moore looks shorter than Craig.
> 
> I like them all and think they all have their strengths (except maybe Lazenby).  I just find no weaknesses in Dalton's version, except the script of "License To Kill".
> 
> 
> 
> Craig is my favorite.  He brings a humanity that the others lack.  He's not perfect the way the others were.
> 
> With Craig, Bond has a painful past.  And it shows.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> yea i iike Craig too....but i like Dalton also.....
Click to expand...

I already said why I didn't like Dalton.


----------



## ginscpy

Synthaholic said:


> daveman said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Now I know why all you RWers want to get rid of Sesame Street: it clearly failed you in teaching you to read, and this is your revenge.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, because that's MUCH easier to believe than the simple explanation that not everyone shares your opinion of Dalton as Bond.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> He was the closest one to Fleming's books.
> 
> He was also the tallest, at 6'2".  I believe Daniel Craig is the shortest.
> 
> Connery and Lazenby both look taller than Dalton, and Roger Moore looks shorter than Craig.
> 
> I like them all and think they all have their strengths (except maybe Lazenby).  I just find no weaknesses in Dalton's version, except the script of "License To Kill".
Click to expand...


Roger Moore looks shorter than Craig?

According to CelebrityHeights.com - Moore is 6 ft 1 and a half inches, Craig 5 ft 10 and a quarter inches.    

Not sure if CH uses current heights - Moore is 85 years old - probably at the very least was 1 inch taller when he played Bond.


----------



## techieny

He was not that bad.  Chris sucked!!!


----------



## ginscpy

Connery was not "perfect" by any means.

Sort of dark and brutish-looking.  Not classically handsome.  Had the most "it" factor.  Was an unknown back then.

Dalton and Brosman are -too generic.

Moore too closely ID to The Saint.

Craig too short.

Nuf said about Lazenby.


----------



## jillian

tinydancer said:


> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Timothy Dalton truly understood the James Bond character, as written by Ian Fleming.  And he is by far the most accomplished actor to ever play the role.  His background in theater really dwarfs all the others, including Sean Connery.  Most people would never guess that Dalton made his debut in the same project that Anthony Hopkins made his debut.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When I first saw Dalton, Heathcliff came alive to me. It was like he dashed out of the pages. I love to read and there are not many actors who can translate a book that I've loved into a movie.
> 
> I agree with the OP. Dalton was Fleming's Bond. You have to understand it from the writer's view point.
> 
> That's where Sync is bang on the money.
> 
> Now Connery was brilliant. Of that there is no doubt. He took the carachter sp? and not only did he run with it, he made a marathon out of it.
> 
> And you can give me Ramirez any day.  But the OP is right on Dalton and Fleming's Bond.
Click to expand...


dalton was not fleming's bond... he modified the character because he thought sean connery was james bond.


----------



## thanatos144

Dalton sucked as bond....He was a cartoon.


----------



## Synthaholic

jillian said:


> tinydancer said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Timothy Dalton truly understood the James Bond character, as written by Ian Fleming.  And he is by far the most accomplished actor to ever play the role.  His background in theater really dwarfs all the others, including Sean Connery.  Most people would never guess that Dalton made his debut in the same project that Anthony Hopkins made his debut.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When I first saw Dalton, Heathcliff came alive to me. It was like he dashed out of the pages. I love to read and there are not many actors who can translate a book that I've loved into a movie.
> 
> I agree with the OP. Dalton was Fleming's Bond. You have to understand it from the writer's view point.
> 
> That's where Sync is bang on the money.
> 
> Now Connery was brilliant. Of that there is no doubt. He took the carachter sp? and not only did he run with it, he made a marathon out of it.
> 
> And you can give me Ramirez any day.  But the OP is right on Dalton and Fleming's Bond.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> *dalton was not fleming's bond*... he modified the character because he thought sean connery was james bond.
Click to expand...


I disagree.


----------



## ginscpy

Heard Connery fell to his death while filming a movie in New Zealand.

Damn........


----------



## slackjawed

ginscpy said:


> Heard Connery fell to his death while filming a movie in New Zealand.
> 
> Damn........



And here we see an example of how these internet hoaxes spread.......


----------



## Synthaholic

*Top 50 James Bond moments in 007 minutes*


Awesome!

Top 50 James Bond moments in 007 minutes - Roger Ebert's Journal


----------



## ginscpy

slackjawed said:


> ginscpy said:
> 
> 
> 
> Heard Connery fell to his death while filming a movie in New Zealand.
> 
> Damn........
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And here we see an example of how these internet hoaxes spread.......
Click to expand...


I didnt read anything in the papers about it - would be front page news if legit.

Glad it was a hoax.


----------



## Synthaholic

Synthaholic said:


> *Top 50 James Bond moments in 007 minutes*
> 
> 
> Awesome!
> 
> Top 50 James Bond moments in 007 minutes - Roger Ebert's Journal


Anybody watch this video?


----------



## Harry Dresden

Synthaholic said:


> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> *Top 50 James Bond moments in 007 minutes*
> 
> 
> Awesome!
> 
> Top 50 James Bond moments in 007 minutes - Roger Ebert's Journal
> 
> 
> 
> Anybody watch this video?
Click to expand...


----------



## Zoom

Personally, I like the newest version of Bond.  He is uh, complicated.


----------



## TruthSeeker56

Sean Connery was the best James Bond.

Pierce Brosnan was the second-best James Bond.

All other Bond actors were pretenders.

End of story.


----------



## Synthaholic

Another one!


*Why Timothy Dalton Is The Best Bond - One Room With A View*


----------



## NYcarbineer

He's good in 'Penny Dreadful'.


----------



## Harry Dresden

Synthaholic said:


> Another one!
> 
> 
> *Why Timothy Dalton Is The Best Bond - One Room With A View*


dam synth.....4 years later?....lol....


----------



## Synthaholic

NYcarbineer said:


> He's good in 'Penny Dreadful'.


I've never seen him be bad, actually.  He was even a hoot in 'Beautician And The Beast', with Fran Drescher.


----------



## Synthaholic

Harry Dresden said:


> Synthaholic said:
> 
> 
> 
> Another one!
> 
> 
> *Why Timothy Dalton Is The Best Bond - One Room With A View*
> 
> 
> 
> dam synth.....4 years later?....lol....
Click to expand...

Truth is timeless, Harry.


----------



## LA RAM FAN

ginscpy said:


> He sucked.
> 
> Only good one was the orig.



.


Synthaholic said:


> Mad Scientist said:
> 
> 
> 
> I'm guessing only the OP thinks Timothy Dalton was the best James Bond, and that's ok.
> 
> 
> 
> I swear, none of you RWers can read.
> 
> Where have I claimed he was the best Bond?
Click to expand...


Yeah trolls like him have horrible reading comprehension problems.


----------



## LA RAM FAN

ginscpy said:


> Any opinions on the worst Bond?
> 
> Mine is George Lazenby.



It would be a tie between him and wooden Pierce Brosnan.Flip a coin on those two,you cant go wrong.I was so pissed when Brosnan took over fromr Dalton.

Dalton was 1o times better and I was elated when he took over the role from Roger Moore instead of Brosnan as it was being reported he would be next in line. Four films of Brosnan were so painful to sit through. Dalton was highly underrated as Bond and that was the worst thing to happen when mr wooden pierce brosnan took over from him.a travesty of justice.


----------



## LA RAM FAN

Synthaholic said:


> More evidence that, had he started a few years earlier and had more 007 movies under his belt, he would have contended as the best Bond ever.  Unfortunately, legal problems plagued the studio during his time.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Timothy Dalton took over the part of James Bond at a time when the  EON film series had veered far away from their literary source, and  approached the role with the Ian Fleming novels and stories as the  essence and foundation. In the press conference that officially  introduced Timothy Dalton as the new James Bond, the actor noted that "I  approached this project [the film *The Living Daylights*] with a sense of responsibility to the work of Ian Fleming."
> 
> He went on to discuss his interpretation of the Bond role further:   "The essential quality of James Bond is a man who lives on the edgehe  never knows when, at any moment, he might be killed. Therefore, I think  some of the qualities we might associate with Bond, the qualities we´ve  seen in this series of movies, the qualities that Ian Fleming wrote so  well about, reflect that sense of danger in his own lifethe qualities  of the man are very much the qualities of someone who lives on the edge  of his life." In the novel _Moonraker_, Fleming describes Bond´s  "ambition to have as little as possible in his banking account when he  was killed, as, when he was depressed, he knew he would be, before the  statutory age of forty-five."
> 
> In _Live and Let Die_, Ian Fleming writes that there are times  when a secret agent "takes refuge in good living to efface the memory of  danger and the shadow of death."  Dalton captures this idea of somebody  who lives in "the shadow of death." Within the parameters of the  scripts he was given, in his two cinematic appearances as James Bond,  Timothy Dalton brought a welcome course correction to the film series,  porting the core essence of Ian Fleming´s immortal secret agent to the  screen.
> 
> In Fleming´s writing, James Bond is vulnerable to the sheer  tension that the danger of his job inspires. Fleming writes of this in  "The Living Daylights," the short story that inspired the first Dalton  007 film, with Bond returning to the apartment in Berlin where he must  assassinate a KGB sniper, and gives "a light hearted account of his day  while an artery near his solar plexus began thumping gently as tension  build up inside him like a watch-spring tightening."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> While on the job and building up to a potentially deadly situation,  Fleming´s Bond is a curt, focused professional. Dalton portrays this  best in the introductory sections of *The Living Daylights*, often  in smaller movements or gestures. As Bond and Saunders ("Head of Station  V, Vienna") are about to step into the door of the building where 007  must kill the sniper, Dalton coolly glances both ways down the street,  scanning for threats, and does the same briefly when they enter the  ground floor room. "Turn off the lights," he almost snaps to Saunders,  capturing some   of the displeasure Bond feels in Fleming´s short story, where 007 notes  the sight of Captain Paul Sender´s tie (the Saunders equivalent in the  short story) and his "spirits, already low, sank another degreeHe knew  the type: backbone of the civil service; over-crammed and under-loved at  Winchester" His opinion of Saunders as an officious bureaucrat is  revealed in Dalton´s contemptuous glance at him and curt tone as he  counters Saunder´s assumption of ammunition type with "No, the  steel-tipped. KGB snipers usually wear body armour."
> 
> Dalton shows the mild contempt through his clipped responses to  Saunders, while allowing the buried coilsprings of tension to surface,  in sometimes subtle ways. There is a small, almost imperceptible moment,  where Dalton sits on the bed, preparing his sniper rifle, and his  fingers slip as he loads the bullets into the rifle cartridge. Perhaps  my favourite moment where Dalton portrays this subsurface tension is  where he, sniper rifle in hand and ready for the kill, turns to  Saunders, exhales distinctly, and quietly asks him to "Bring the chair."  Compare that moment with Fleming´s Daylights: "Bond said, Yes.´ He  said it softly. The scent of the enemy, the need to take care, already  had him by the nerves."
> 
> Fleming´s Bond takes brief refuge in sensual, carnal pleasures to  help steel his nerves for the coming confrontation. In the beginning of  the film version, which follows the basic plot of the short story,  Dalton scans the crowd at a music recital, looking for the defector  Koskov, and casually notes the "lovely girl with the cello." His  expression while he says the line is a small, tight-lipped smile, an  indication of the underlying tension as he gratefully takes in the  beauty of Kara Milovy.
> 
> An underlying distaste and loathing for his profession also manifests  in Fleming´s Bond stories, and this is another facet that Dalton brings  to the screen. After Saunders expresses his anger at Bond´s  commandeering of Koskov´s rescue and threatens to report to M that he  deliberately missed shooting Kara, Dalton snaps back "Stuff my orders. I  only kill professionalsGo ahead, tell him what you want. If he fires  me, I´ll thank him for it." Dalton´s forceful delivery of this dialogue,  tinged with an edge of cruelty and contempt, brings out James Bond´s  uneasy relationship with the hard, soul-eroding surfaces of his double-o  status.
> 
> Dalton is helped by similarities to some lines from the Fleming  original: "Look, my friend," said Bond wearily, "I´ve got to commit a  murder tonight. Not you. Me. So be a good chap and stuff it, would you?  You can tell Tanqueray anything  you like when it´s over. Think I like  this job? Having a Double-O number and so  on? I´d be quite happy for  you to get me sacked from the Double-O Section. Then I could settle down  and make a snug nest of papers as an ordinary Staffer. Right?"  (Sidenote: It´s amazingly easy to imagine Dalton delivering those lines  exactly as written by Ian Fleming.)
> 
> Fleming´s Bond has an uneasy relationship with the killing that is a necessary part of the job of a double-o. In Chapter I of _Goldfinger_,  Fleming details Bond´s self-reflection after completing a kill for Her  Majesty´s Secret Service: "It was part of his profession to kill people.  He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well  as he knew how and forgot about it." Though it is "his duty to be as  cool about death as a surgeon," James Bond finds himself running the  death over and over in his head, a signal that a part of the secret  agent is uncomfortable with executing his licence to kill. Dalton´s  performance in the opening of *The Living Daylights* captures this  weariness, this tense introspectiveness, and brings it out through his  clipped, almost cynical line delivery, quietly bringing to the surface  the Bond that has an inner struggle between professional killer and the  regret that lingers in his soul.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Much more at the link.



For me,Connery and Moore are the only true James Bond actors.All the others are phony wanna be's. Yeah I know a lot of people dont like Moore but thats because of the direction the series started to take when he came onboard. as Dalton said in that link  you provided earlier,he was offered the role back then when Diamonds are forever was made but he turned it down because he did not like the direction the series had  taken and it started with that movie and really became more so under Moore.

 Moore is my favorite Bond and then Connery second and thats because I grew up with Moore and never knew about Connery until many years later. Moore for me is my favorite because I loved his sarcasm.He would always crack jokes when his life was in danger and was mr calm all the time.Never panicked when things looked grim for him.

 LIke in the fight with Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me he gets that metal attracting device to grab Jaws by his teeth and it picks him up in the air  and he says to him while remaining calm  without cracking a smile-"Hows that grab you?"  You look at the one James Bond film he was in where the movie under him WAS serious Live and Let Die,where they stayed away from having so much comedy in it,he was great in that film.

As I said, Moore and Connery for me are the only real James Bond actors but Dalton is easily leaps and bounds a much  better Bond that Brosnan.the guy could not act,was wooden as hell and you had the sense he was just there because he HAD to be there,that he really did not want to be there and was not enjoying what he was doing.Moore and Connery you could tell always enjoyed and had fun with it. Dalton should have remained as Bond for at least three more films after the two he did. should have been Dalton with four films as Bond and Brosnan with only two.that was an injustice.


----------



## NYcarbineer

Synthaholic said:


> NYcarbineer said:
> 
> 
> 
> He's good in 'Penny Dreadful'.
> 
> 
> 
> I've never seen him be bad, actually.  He was even a hoot in 'Beautician And The Beast', with Fran Drescher.
Click to expand...


If you look back on Dalton's career, a long career, you see he had a knack for getting into some very high quality movies, mostly of a historical nature, such as Mary Queen of Scots, Cromwell, The Lion in Winter, etc.


----------



## Bob Blaylock

I was not favorably impressed with Mr. Dalton's performance in The Living Daylights.  I had the sense that he couldn't decide whether he was supposed to be playing Sean Connery or Roger Moore, and he seemed to keep flip-flopping between rather poor impressions of each.

  In License to Kill, he was much better.  He finally got that he wasn't supposed to be playing Sean Connery, and he wasn't supposed to be playing Roger Moore; he was supposed to be playing James Bond.  And here, he played the role spectacularly.  It was a rather different role, than usual, for the character, not just the professional government agent out to do his job; but an angry, vengeful James Bond determined, at all costs, to take down the villain responsible for the maiming of his close friend and the rape and murder of that friend's new wife; and not caring how much else he had to bring down in order to do it.

  Mr. Dalton, I think, is not my favorite actor to play the role, but I think that License to Kill is, in my view, one of the best—if the *the* best—out of all the James Bond movies.

  I think that on the whole, Pierce Brosnan is my favorite of all the actors to play the role, though it seems that in his period, they were rather bereft of really good stories to put him in.


----------



## Zander

Anyone who has read Read Ian Fleming's books knows that they all sucked. 

Watching movies is a poor substitute for reading.


----------



## Synthaholic

Maybe my favorite Bond Girl. From GoldenEye.


----------



## Kittymom1026

I just now saw this thread and loved him as James Bond. My first favorite is Sean though, but he's a close second. And, I also have the DVD. Oh, and he can really kiss, not from experience, darn it, but from watching him on screen. You can tell by watching the actors. One of the worst kissers is also one of my favorite actors...Harrison Ford. And, Roger Moore was also a bad kisser.
Oh, and OP, have you seen him as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights? That was the first time I saw him and immediately fell in love with him. Those eyes!!


----------

