How Many Actors Have Portrayed Superspy James Bond Over the Last 50 Years?

Quick! Who was the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's legendary character James Bond?

If you answered Sean Connery I'm sorry to say that you are incorrect. Connery may have been the first actor to portray Bond in a major motion picture but Bond was first portrayed by actor Barry Nelson in a live TV broadcast of CASINO ROYALE in 1954. The anthology series "Climax" adapted Fleming's first Bond novel into a one hour TV play, changing Bond from a Brit to a Yank and co-starring the legendary Peter Lorre as the villainous Le Chiffre. Nelson didn't get to deliver any of the now-familiar Bondisms ("Shaken, not stirred." Or "The name is Bond. James Bond.") and is not by any stretch of the imagination the best Bond but he is indisputably the first.

Sean Connery made his debut as Bond 6 years later in DR. NO (1960). His unparalleled ease at mixing humor with deadly grit made him into an icon. He became so associated with the character of Bond that he feared being typecast and having to live in the shadow of the suave British secret agent forever. After five movies Connery made the decision to quit and move on to other, more serious sorts of film roles. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the producers of the Bond films, now faced a dilemma of their own: how to proceed with the film series, one of the most lucrative in the world, without the man whose name seemed synonymous with that of their hero.