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What is a Bond actor's perfect age?


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#1 Hockey Mask

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Posted 05 September 2015 - 05:01 PM

A list of the Bond movies with the age of the actor portraying Bond (forgive me if my numbers are off). The ages are their age when they began production. So what age seems best?

29 OHMSS
31 DN
32 FRWL
33 GF
34 TB
35 YOLT
37 CR
39 QOS
40 DAF
41 GE
42 TLD
43 TND, SF, Idris Elba currently
44 LALD, LTK
45 TWINE
46 TMWTGG, SP
48 TSWLM, DAD
50 MR
52 FYEO, NSNA
54 OP
56 AVTAK

Edited by 00Hockey Mask, 05 September 2015 - 05:02 PM.


#2 univex

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Posted 05 September 2015 - 05:33 PM

Very interesting. I´d say all of them. But I´ve always thought of Bond as being about 40/45. Connery alway looked about 8 years older than he really was.



#3 Mr_Wint

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Posted 05 September 2015 - 08:06 PM

It all depends on the actor. And how we perceive age is so relative. I think the actor will look "old" in his 5th/6th film no matter what age he had at the beginning...

But I prefer Bond to look slightly older than the average action hero. Connery in DAF, Moore in TSWLM, or Brosnan in TND/TWINE is just right for the character. With Craig it doesn't really matter because he doesn't play that kind of Bond anyway.

#4 Grard Bond

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Posted 05 September 2015 - 08:41 PM

Can you explain that last remark, "..because he doesn't play that kind of Bond anyway."

What do you mean with that? If in the future Craig is looking too old, than he is just looking too old, no mather how he's playing Bond.



#5 bribond

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Posted 06 September 2015 - 12:44 PM

I didn't make the remark but I would surmise that it means that we are seeing Craig play Bond as a character at different ages with a consistent thread so his adventure in one film affects the next one.  The other Bonds all played him as a veteran agent.  Again it depends on the actor.  Connery in Diamonds (filmed when he was 40) looked a lot older than Timothy Dalton in The
Living Daylights (filmed when that actor was 40) but Connery had started playing Bond at 31. 

 

I think at this stage we expect to see Bond as a more veteran agent so early to mid 40s is probably ideal if the films are not meant to be on any timeline.



#6 SecretAgentFan

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Posted 06 September 2015 - 01:19 PM

Connery indeed looked older when he did DN, FRWL, GF, TB and YOLT - but during these films he seemed to be the perfect age for Bond.   In DAF he looked too old for my taste.

 

Moore looked younger when he did LALD, TMWTGG, TSWLM and MR - but from then on he looked increasingly older.

 

Lazenby always looked a bit young IMO.

 

Brosnan looked younger when he did GE and TND.  He seemed to age faster but still looked fit and good in TWINE and DAD.  But afterwards he did age a lot in his movies and would have looked too old, IMO.

 

Craig - so far - looks right for the part, older when he was younger and since then kind of fixed.  If he can continue that in SPECTRE maybe he will look fit for the next one.

 

Generally, I guess an actor should be at least in his mid-30´s and not older than his mid, late 40´s.



#7 DaveBond21

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Posted 06 September 2015 - 10:49 PM

I think early 40's is the perfect age, but for an actor starting in the role, and hoping to do at least 4 films, I would say 35 is a good starting point.



#8 Blofeld's Cat

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Posted 07 September 2015 - 03:42 AM

I did this exercise awhile ago in these forums but I think the link to the image I posted is broken.
 
So, by including the whole age bracket of each Bond actor in the Bond role you get an idea of who fits where in the age stakes.
 
 
 
 


#9 graric

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Posted 07 September 2015 - 05:34 AM

I'd say mid-30's- early 40's is the optimal starting age for a Bond (and early 50's can work during the end of their tenure, as long as the ageing is addressed in some manner.)
But even then it very much goes down to how old the actor looks. Henry Cavill is currently 32 and looks close to perfect for the role, while his Batman V Superman co-star Jesse Eisenberg is a year younger but looks far too young for the role (and would never be a serious choice, just a quick example of how the age an actor looks is as important as their actual age.)