I just saw Skyfall yesterday. It was a pretty good movie, though I still have a tough time with goofy stunts and improbable villains. Living Daylights is still my favourite Bond movie. On that, I'm in a small minority. But after 50 years of James Bond movies I wondered how old Bond was (or more accurately the actor playing him) and his 'main' Bond girl. So I made a list. This plot includes every 'official' bond movie, 23 in all (while skipping the 1967 Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again, etc).
Notice how young Sean Connery played bond, between 32 to 41 (not counting NSNA where he was 53). Roger Moore was 5 years older than Connery in his first movie appearance. This means that except for Lazeny's brief stint audiences were introduced to a yet-older Bond every year between 1962 and 1985. More recently Bond's age has been stabilizing between mid 30s and late 40s. The average age for all Bonds is 43.
Most bond girls -as might have be guessed- are under 30. But not by much; their average age is 29. There's a slight trend in casting 'older' (relatively speaking), though it's interesting to see that 1964's Pussy Galore continues to be the oldest Bond girl at 39.
I had no idea Lazeby was only 30 when he joined the franchise (while his female counterpart was 31). That might explain his failure as Bond; he was simply too young!
