Which James Bond Actors Did Their Own Stunts (& Which Never Risk It)?

It’s not easy being in a James Bond movie, whether playing the main man, a Bond girl, or a top MI6 boss, chances are that actors will have to get their hands dirty in some brawny action, considering it’s the world’s most successful spy film franchise. However, in Bond history, several notable actors who were part of the film did not do their own stunts.

To be fair, an actor is not expected to do unrealistic or dangerous stunts, especially if it involves something climbing up a 150-feet cliff. However, audiences have praised actors who played the role of Bond and did their own stunts, as it makes their portrayal a lot more convincing. So who are the actors who used a stunt double in the Bond films, and who didn’t?

10 Used A Double: Sean Connery

Sean Connery almost always used a stunt double, except in From Russia With Love where he performed almost all of his stunts himself, including the boat scene. Director Terence Young choreographed the fight between Grant and Bond along with stunt coordinator Peter Perkins in the film.

But in most of Connery’s Bond films, the stunt double was quite poorly hidden – a detail eagle-eyed fans could never get over.  In You Only Live Twice when James Bond encounters SPECTRE thugs in Japan, the stunt coordinator and action director Bob Simmons did the fight scene with the help of the body switch technique. He also acted as Connery’s double in Dr. No’s gun barrel scene and also in all his films. Even the tarantula scene in Dr. No was filmed by Simmons.

Of course, with the news of Connery’s passing, few fans are likely to care if the great actor did his own stunts or not – instead, we can simply mourn the passing of someone who was, to many, the ultimate James Bond.

9 Did His Own Stunts: Timothy Dalton

Dalton insisted on doing as many of his stunts as possible, which also helped his niche popularity among Bond fans, because Dalton tried to deviate from Roger Moore’s rendition and chose to play it closer to Ian Fleming’s original version.  He made it a point to attempt to do most of his own stunts, and his first Bond film The Living Daylights had quite a lot of them.

In the pre-credits sequence of the film, Dalton wanted to do a risky scene involving a 1,300-foot drop. Stunt supervisor Paul Weston said, “I knew Timothy was strong enough to do the stunts, but it’s still a 1,300-foot drop down the side of the mountain if anything went wrong. It took great courage.”

8 Used A Double: Roger Moore

Roger Moore was the oldest Bond, so he obviously used a double in most of his scenes. He was famously quoted as saying, “Of course I do my own stunts. And I also do my own lying.” But he had very little stunts to begin with, his version of Bond was a lot more seasoned and he didn’t jump into action in every other scene.

In For Your Eyes Only, Bond plans to attack the mountain hideout of Aris Kristatos and has to climb a rather high and rocky cliff. An American mountaineer named Rick Sylvester doubled for Moore and he climbed a steep cliff in the Greek Meteora Mountains, and also dropped 100 feet from the top of the cliff as part of the same stunt. 

7 Did His Own Stunts: Dave Bautista

Dave ‘Drax The Destroyer’ Bautista obviously did all of his own stunts in SPECTRE, and famously uttered just one word in the entire film. The makers were looking for an actor with a background in contact sports for the role of Hinx, and Bautista being a WWE superstar was an obvious choice for the role.

Bautista has said that he wanted to bring back the classic stereotype of the big, bad, silent henchman back in the film and he of course, did all his own stunts, including the very tense train fight scene which features several kinds of fighting techniques.

6 Used A Double: Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan used several stunt doubles during his stint as Bond. Gary Powell was Brosnan’s stunt double in Goldeneye where he drove the tank, and then doubled him again during the boat chase in The World Is Not Enough.

Mark Southworth doubled the actor on Tomorrow Never Dies and again during The World Is Not Enough’s pre-title sequence where Bond was required to do some hardcore action as he rolled along the sides of The Millennium Dome. He doubled once again for Pierce in Die Another Day. Jodi Casares, George Cottle and Jean Pierre Goy were some of Brosnan’s other stunt doubles.

5 Did His Own Stunts: Mads Mikkelsen

Mads Mikkelsen is a trained gymnast and had been a professional dancer before he pursued acting, so naturally the makers of Casino Royale were keen to make him participate in some action. Mikkelsen revealed that the maker actually added some intense action after they cast Mikkelsen to utilize his background thoroughly. 

“I have been doing stunts all my life so they added more just for me. I have a scene where I gave Daniel a hard time, and I have a scene where someone is giving me a hard time. I didn’t get to drive cars over cliffs, sadly!” he had said during an interview.

4 Used A Double: Eva Green

Eva Green is one of the few Bond girls who actually got in on the action and actually helps James Bond during a particularly tricky situation, but Green did have a double for the staircase scene in Casino Royale where she had to jump in high heels.

Green has often talked about how she enjoys watching her co-star Daniel Craig’s in action because his moves are sharp and gritty, like Bond was originally envisioned. Green performed the heartbreaking underwater scene on her own where she basically surrenders her life so Bond can live; but to be fair, a stunt double wouldn’t have been much help there, as the actor’s face was clearly visible during the scene.

3 Did His Own Stunts: Javier Bardem

Bardem played the role of one of the most intimidating villains to ever exist in the Bond franchise; his portrayal of Raoul Silva was haunting to say the least, because a lot of his anti-establishment rage was justified. However in the film he carried out his personal vendetta in the form of global terrorism, and in Skyfall Bardem actually did a lot of his own stunts.

A remarkably complicated scene in the film was the chase through the underground tube station where Bond had to chase him through a crowd of people that too in rush hour. Though Craig used a body double, especially for the part where he catches a train with a last-minute jump, Bardem did all of his running and falling himself. 

2 Used A Body Double: Daniel Craig

The actor has been praised for bringing an intense, military-leaning body language to the Bond franchise which was sadly missing from earlier renditions of the super spy. Craig’s Bond did have to do the most action as compared to his predecessors, and it would be unfair to expect him to do all the heavy-duty action.

During his stint as Bond in the last decade, Craig has used several body doubles, like Martin Ivanov who doubled for Craig during the incredible car chase scene at the beginning of Quantum of Solace. Although, Craig’s chief double for his first three Bond films was Ben Cooke. 

1 Did His Own Stunts: George Lazenby

Australian actor George Lazenby did not win a lot of accolades for his acting in James Bond, although he was physically quite convincing and was a trained martial artist. In fact, the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service succeeded mainly because of Lazenby’s tough action sequences, and he was perhaps the first person to bring a sense of real, physical edge to the character, something Connery and Moore had bypassed.

In the film Lazenby wanted to do most of his own stunts but the studio wouldn’t allow him, and he even broke his arm during a stunt, delaying filming by a few weeks. But Lazenby could be seen visibly performing most of his own stunts in the movie, which earned him praise even from his predecessors. 

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