The image of James Bond is fixed in our minds. The tuxedo. The intense eyes. The shaken (never stirred) vodka martini.

That collective idea of James Bond feels fixed in our minds now after 50 years and 25 movies starring Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and most recently Daniel Craig. That’s the actual list of 007 alumni, But along the way, there were many other actors who were considered for the role of Bond — or, in some cases, were offered the part and turned it down for a variety of reasons. If things had worked out just a little bit differently, we could be comparing No Time to Die to James Brolin’s Octopussy, or seeing how Daniel Craig measured up to Cary Grant in Doctor No.

Here are 12 such examples of actors who came the closest to looking down that famous 007 gun barrel.

Actors Who Almost Played James Bond

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