My vote for the best onscreen fighter goes to George Lazenby. He served in the Australian Army, so perhaps that's where he got his fighting prowess from, although being in the Army didn't really help Moore in that sense - who, without doubt appeared to be the least capable from that point of view.
Always thought Dalton was physically out of place in the Bond character (though mentally in gear).
Fleming's Bond is described as having a slim build. Fleming's Bond is a boxer and a practitioner of judo, but wasn't particularly muscular or well built, and wasn't particularly fit (probably due to excessive drinking and smoking). From that point of view, I would argue that Dalton fits the character down to a T.
I too am a big Dalton fan, but have to agree he wasn't a very physical
Actor. In fact at times I thought he moved a little awkwardly. )
I don't agree, he was good in action scenes and moved well. It's just that his fight scenes didn't work so good. The "fight" against the SAS-guard in TLD is downright cringeworthy.
Perhaps the bar scene fight in LTK is his best fight scene?
Come to think of it, Dalton had a few good fight scenes - he just never had a a GREAT fight scene. Just look at this TLD scene where he handles himslef well:
Connery, Lazenby, and Craig are tied for me. Connery looks the most cool, Lazenby looks the most athletic, and Craig looks the most tough. In fact, despite all the silly grousing about his size, he's the one out of all of them that seems the most capable of truly beating the stuffing out of someone.
Of the remainders, I'm not so sure Roger Moore is the worst. As others have posted, Dalton never really had much in terms of traditional fistfights, and I'm trying to remember any of Brosnan's. Moore at least could fall back on his age much of the time.
I'd like to think Dalton could be among the best fighters among the Bond actors if he had better fight choreographers: His fight scenes are not very origional or inventive, but he had the physicaility and motivation. The scene where an SAS guard tries to stop him in the TLD PTS where Dalton just shoulders him and grunts is horrible, but I have always felt Bond should have put on more of a fight the fight against the Hong Kong police in LTK. He barely gets a puch in if I remember correctly. Bond should have knocked out one of them, just to show us he is Bond. I seem to remember the weapons experts on this forum mentioning Dalton wasn't trained very well in firearms either. Perhaps weak training in fighting skills was a problem for Dalton?
Comments
Fleming's Bond is described as having a slim build. Fleming's Bond is a boxer and a practitioner of judo, but wasn't particularly muscular or well built, and wasn't particularly fit (probably due to excessive drinking and smoking). From that point of view, I would argue that Dalton fits the character down to a T.
I don't agree, he was good in action scenes and moved well. It's just that his fight scenes didn't work so good. The "fight" against the SAS-guard in TLD is downright cringeworthy.
Perhaps the bar scene fight in LTK is his best fight scene?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ_wcWwwAts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnYILP5qOcg
Of the remainders, I'm not so sure Roger Moore is the worst. As others have posted, Dalton never really had much in terms of traditional fistfights, and I'm trying to remember any of Brosnan's. Moore at least could fall back on his age much of the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZUGoa3JHc
always seems to punch coming in from the side.
into all the filing cabinets.