Daniel Craig: The new James Bond

Craig, a tough-looking character actor who has mixed up appearances in many art-house titles with roles in blockbusters such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, just beat fellow Briton -- Clive Owen for the role.

Craig would be the sixth Bond in the official series of films based on the novels by Ian Fleming, following Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and most recent incumbent Pierce Brosnan.

While Craig remains relatively unknown outside Britain, he is well respected as an actor and also has the necessary reputation for being something of a Bond-esque ladies man, having recently dated supermodel Kate Moss.

Brosnan's last film as Bond was Die Another Day in 2002. Since then a string of possible replacements has been mooted, including Britons Jude Law and Ewan McGregor and Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana.