The James Bond 007 movies are the highest financially booming English language movie franchise to date. The English novelist Ian Fleming created James Bond 007 in 1953. Mr. Bond was featured in twelve novels and two short story collections. The motion picture franchise started with “Dr. No” in 1962.

Ian Fleming died in 1964, however that was not the conclusion of the novels featuring James Bond. Kingsley Amis, writing as Robert Markham, John Pearson, Raymond Benson, John Gardner and Sebastian Faulks, wrote consequent James Bond novels. Moreover, Christopher Woods novelized two screenplays and an assortment of other writers’ authored unofficial versions of the character.

There have been 22 movies in the James Bond franchise to date, the most recent being “Quantum of Solace” that was released October 31, 2008. The first movie was “Dr. No”, from the time 1962.

Numerous actors have portrayed Bond. Sean Connery was the original James Bond in the films. He played James Bond in 6 diverse movies, starting with “Dr. No” in 1962. In 1963, it was followed by “From Russia with Love”, “Goldfinger” in 1964, “Thunderball” from 1965, “You Only Live Twice” in 1967 and from 1971, “Diamonds are Forever”.

In 1969, Sean Connery took a short vacation from being James Bond for the show “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. George Lazenby played James Bond in that movie. He was the only performer of all of the James Bond actors to simply act in one picture.

After that Roger Moore became Bond. In 1973 for “Live and Let Die”, 1974 in “The Man with the Golden Gun” and 1977, “The Spy who Loved Me”, in 1979 it was “Moonraker” and 1981 brought “For Your Eyes Only”, “Octopussy” in 1983 and the last movie starring Roger Moore was “A View to a Kill” in 1985.

Timothy Dalton took over the reins in 1987 for “The Living Daylights” and “License to Kill” in 1989. In 1995, “Goldeneye” came out with Pierce Brosnan in the prime role. Pierce Brosnan played in 3 added films, “Tomorrow Never Dies” from 1997, “The World Is Not Enough” from 1999 and “Die Another Day” from 2002.

Daniel Craig, the only fair-haired James Bond to date, is the existing lead role for the Bond franchise. He has starred in 2 films so far, with at least one more expected for the future. Daniel Craig was Bond in “Casino Royale” from 2006 and “Quantum of Solace” from 2008.