I’ve done Superman and Lois Lane, and now I think I’ll rank the actors who’ve played the world’s most famous fictional secret agent.

I’m a second-generation James Bond fan. My mother loved the original Ian Fleming novels and the movies, so I discovered the character through her. I know I’ve seen every film (at least the official ones) at least once, and I remember some more than others, of course.

I have not seen the 1967 version of Casino Royale, so David Niven, who played a version of James Bond in that film, is not on my list. Part of me thinks that I should make an effort to see it someday, but nothing I’ve read or seen about it motivates me to do so.

So here we go, with the actors that I have seen.

6) GEORGE LAZENBY

I only saw On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, his one and only Bond film, one time when I was young, and I really don’t remember all that much about it, nor have much curiosity to refresh my memory by rewatching it. So I clearly wasn’t impressed by his performance. Thus, his placement is at the bottom of my list.

5) TIMOTHY DALTON

Neither The Living Daylights nor License To Kill are great James Bond movies, but I think Dalton was great in them. He just needed better material to work with to cement his role as Bond. So I was bummed when it was announced that he wouldn’t be returning to the role after that. I think Dalton had a lot of untapped potential and could return Bond to the rugged toughness that Sean Connery had and that Daniel Craig would later bring to the franchise.

4) ROGER MOORE

This man was my real introduction to the character, as A View To A Kill was the first James Bond film that I saw all the way through (I’d seen parts of several of Connery’s films on TV while my mother was watching them, through the years before that, but never sat through an entire film), and I loved it. After that film, I started making the effort to seek out and watch the James Bond films before that. Still, in hindsight, it’s clear that he probably did stick it out a little too long, as he was noticeably getting older.

3) SEAN CONNERY

Now, once I started going back to watch the old James Bond, I quickly concluded that Connery was way better than Moore. He set the standard for how live-action James Bond should be portrayed. Watching him on screen, you had no trouble believing that he was the kind of man who could gun down a group of henchmen and then go to the casino and seduce one of the waitresses without breaking a sweat. It’s easy to see why so many fans to this day consider him the quintessential James Bond and may be shocked that I place him as number three on my list.

And I still love the fan theory that the character that Connery plays in The Rock is actually James Bond.

2) DANIEL CRAIG

As I said, he fulfilled Timothy Dalton’s promise. His version of James Bond felt the most like a modern-day interpretation of Sean Connery’s version. Equally a brutal killer and a charming ladies’ man. Being the only actor in the franchise thus far to have continuing storylines from one film to the next also gives him an edge over his predecessors, as we saw his character arc from a new Double-O to a grizzled veteran on the verge of retirement. His time in the role got off to a good enough start with Casino Royale, but by the time we got to Skyfall, he had embodied the role perfectly.

He’s so good that I was really close to naming him my number one pick. It is a tough choice for me, but in the end, I just have to go with:

1) PIERCE BROSNAN

I was already a fan of his from the TV show Remington Steele, which my mother and I used to watch together. I remember when the series was canceled, and it was announced in the press that he was being cast to replace Roger Moore as James Bond. I was excited then. But then NBC renewed the series, so Brosnan had to drop out, which led to Timothy Dalton being cast. So when he was finally given the role for real, I was ecstatic.

He’s the only one whom I’ve seen all of his James Bond films in the theater; my mother and I would go see them on their opening weekends, as opposed to on TV. His portrayal definitely leaned more into the ladies’ man side of Bond; he always looked like he was enjoying himself, no matter how dangerous his missions were, but that’s what made it work.

Whoever they cast as James Bond next (I would love to see Henry Cavill in the role), I hope they return to this type of portrayal. Leave the brutal, stripped-down violence to the John Wicks, Jack Reachers, Jason Bournes, etc. Give us the James Bond who rocks a tuxedo and blows bad guys away while sipping champagne and spouting pithy one-liners.