Who’s the richest James Bond actor? Net worths, ranked – from OG icon Sean Connery’s US$350 million stash, to Pierce Brosnan’s payday and outgoing 007 Daniel Craig’s US$25 million per film deal

Dec 25 , 2022

Four of the actors who played James Bond, from left: Daniel Craig, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery. Photos: @tiernysimon/Twitter, Getty Images

Oldest and longest lasting 007 Roger Moore appeared in a record seven Bond films, but his estate’s US$110 million fortune isn’t a patch on three of the franchise’s other leading men

Pierce Brosnan, who reinvented the role across four films, started out with a US$4 million salary for GoldenEye – but ended up banking four times that for his final outing

Ah, Bond … James Bond. He’s revered for his dapper looks and sleek style, his elusive spy moves, and his suave playboy ways – charming his way through women while dolling out violence with an apparent guilt-free licence to kill. To a certain generation of men, 007 is the ultimate symbol of masculinity – an unfathomably cool sex symbol who can apparently make nearly every woman he desires weak in the knees.

While the misogynist overtones and post-colonial posturing of the character’s heyday may be better left in the past, playing Bond is still a career-defining role that has propelled every actor lucky enough to order a vodka-martini “shaken, not stirred” to eternal superstardom (well, five of them, anyway). A gig playing 007 creates a new generation’s “It” man, guaranteeing a lifetime of future employment, and a subsequently stratospheric net worth.

Daniel Craig as James Bond in No Time to Die. Photo: MGM/Universal

In the span of the 25 official films released in the past 60 years, Bond fans have seen six actors take on the role on the big screen: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig (there was also David Niven, but it was in the 1967 parody Casino Royale, so doesn’t count, we say).

So who’s going to be the next James Bond? Henry Cavill is still in the running, as are Tom Hardy, Aaron Taylor Johnson and Rege-Jean Page. In the meantime, here’s the lowdown on the richest James Bond actors, from whose asking fee ballooned after making 007 films, to who fattened up their stash cash with meaty deals and fresh roles.

6. George Lazenby – US$20 million

One-hit James Bond wonder George Lazenby. Photo: @georgelazenbyofficial/Instagram

If there’s a one-hit wonder among the Bond men, it has to be Australian George Lazenby, 83, who starred in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969. And while his performance garnered mixed reviews from critics, he notably earned a Golden Globe nomination for it. Lazenby was only 29 at the time – the youngest to have taken on the role.

George Lazenby made his money from multiple business ventures. Photo: @georgelazenbyofficial/Instagram

Sure, his Bond wasn’t the favourite, but pre-007 days, Lazenby was quite the heartthrob, a sought-after model in his heyday in the 1960s. Following his short-lived James Bond stint, he is said to have amassed wealth from multiple business ventures and real estate, per Yahoo Finance.