Sir Thomas Sean Connery, Légion d'honneur, (born 25 August 1930) is an Oscar winning Scottish actor who has starred in many films and is best known as the original cinematic James Bond.
Connery is known for his trademark Scottish accent and his good looks, repeatedly mentioned as one of the most attractive men alive by magazines even after he was considerably older than more conventional sex symbols. Some consider him more handsome now than when he was younger.
| Sean Connery |
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| Biographical information |
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| Name: | Sean Connery |
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| Born: | August 25, 1930 |
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| Gender: | Male |
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| Occupation: | Actor - James Bond |
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Personal life
Connery was born in Fountainbridge in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a Christian mixed-denomination couple. His father, Joseph Connery, was of Irish-Catholic descent with roots in County Wexford, Ireland; his mother, Euphamia "Effie" Maclean, was a Protestant. Neither he nor his brother, Neil, were raised as Catholics. Connery claims that he was called by his middle name of Sean long before he became an actor, explaining that he had an Irish friend named Seamus (pronounced Sha-mus), and those who knew them decided to call him by his middle name, which started with an "S", whenever he was with Seamus, and it stuck. He joined the Royal Navy after leaving school, and after being discharged on medical grounds went on to a succession of jobs, including truck driver, labourer and lifeguard. He competed for Scotland in the Mr. Universe competition in 1950, which led to work on the stage, TV, and eventually film. As a weight lifter, his nickname was "Big Tam".
He has long advocated Scottish independence, and has supported the Scottish National Party (SNP), a political party campaigning for Scottish self-government, financially and through personal appearances. This support is illustrated by a comment from his official website:
"While it is generally accepted that his support of Scotland's independence and the Scottish National Party delayed his knighthood for many years, his commitment to Scotland has never wavered. Politics in the United Kingdom often has more intrigue than a James Bond plot. While Scotland is not yet independent, she does have a new parliament. Sir Sean campaigned hard for the yes vote during the Scottish Referendum that created the new Scottish Parliament. He believes firmly that the Scottish Parliament will grow in power and that Scotland will be independent within his lifetime."
Connery used part of the fees from his work as James Bond to establish a charity to support deprived children in Edinburgh as well as Scottish Film production. These charitable works may have earned him a Knighthood earlier, but it was revealed in 1997 that the award had been declined by the UK Labour government due to his support for the SNP.
Connery received the Légion d'honneur in 1991. He received Kennedy Center Honors from the United States in 1999, presented to him by President Bill Clinton. He received a Knighthood on July 5, 2000, wearing a hunting tartan kilt of the MacLean of Duart clan. Connery received the Orden de Manuel Amador Guerrero from Mireya Moscoso, former president of Panama on 11 March 2003, for his talent and versatility as an actor.
He became the second husband of Australian-born actress Diane Cilento from 1962 until 1973, with whom he had a son, Jason. Since 1975, he has been married to French-Moroccan artist Micheline Roquebrune Connery.
In September 2004, media reports indicated that Connery intended to retire after he pulled out of Josiah's Canon, which was to be released in 2005. However, in a December 2004 interview with The Scotsmannewspaper from his home in the Bahamas, the then 74-year-old actor denied he was retiring and said he would like to make another movie, but that he is taking a break from acting in order to concentrate on writing his autobiography, but now the book will no longer be written. Just weeks before his 75th birthday, over the weekend of July 30/31 2005, it was widely reported in the broadcast media, and again in The Scotsman which credited the source as an interview in an unspecified New Zealand newspaper, that he had decided to retire from film making following disillusionment with the "idiots now in Hollywood" and the turmoil making and box office failure of the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
As a personality he has been accused of being an overbearing bully but has also been praised as a highly professional and polite actor, courteous and supportive of those around him. Connery made a big impression on actors such as Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner and Christopher Lambert, who considered him a great friend during filming.
James Bond
Connery is well known to audiences around the world for his role as James Bond. He first appeared as agent 007 in
Dr. No (1962) and subsequently played Bond in several sequels.
From Russia with Love (1963)
Goldfinger (1964)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Never Say Never Again (1983) (unofficial)
Connery was discovered by Harry Saltzman after numerous names as possible contenders for Bond were thrown or ruled out, including Roger Moore, David Niven, Cary Grant, and many others. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond pays tribute to Connery in his 1963 novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service by stating that 007's surname as well as his father, was Scottish. Ironically, Fleming reportedly did not like the casting of Connery on the grounds that the stocky, 6'2" Scotsman was too "unrefined", but with some tutelage from director Terence Young, Connery won Fleming over. Young helped to smooth Connery's rough and tumble edges over, and then used Connery's imposing physique yet amazingly graceful, cat-like carriage so effectively in every scene.
Connery's favorite of the films was From Russia with Love, one of the most critically acclaimed in the series. He confirmed that, in a 2002 interview with Sam Donaldson for ABCNews.com. (American Movie Classics erroneously cited
Thunderball as Connery's favorite during its recent Bond retrospectives.)
In 1967 Connery quit the role of Bond, having grown tired of the repetitive plots, lack of character development and the general public's demands on him and his privacy (as well as fearing typecasting), which led Albert R. Broccoli to hire George Lazenby to assume the role in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. After the film's release, Lazenby backed out of a seven-film contract. Broccoli lured Connery back to the role with $1.25 million plus 12.5% of the film's profits, or about $6 million total to do so, then the highest salary for any actor. Connery reprised the official role just one last time in 1971 for
Diamonds Are Forever, then retired from the role shortly after that release.
Due to, and at the height of, an ongoing legal battle between Broccoli's EON Productions and Kevin McClory(co-writer of
Thunderball), McClory was allowed to create a remake of Thunderball after a 10-year span after the release of Thunderball. In the late 1970s McClory teamed with Connery to write an original James Bond film. The project never got off the ground due to further lawsuits brought about by United Artists; however, in 1983 Connery teamed with McClory again to play the role of secret agent James Bond 007 for the seventh and final time in the unofficial film and remake
Never Say Never Again. The title of the film has long believed to have derived from Connery's comments after the release of
Diamonds Are Forever who, after filming it, claimed he would never play James Bond again. (For the legal battle see the controversy of Thunderball)
Connery returned to the role once more in 2005, providing the voice and likeness of James Bond for the video game adaptation of
From Russia with Love.
According to director Sam Mendes, the idea of approaching Connery to portray the part of Kincade in the 2012 film Skyfall was very briefly considered. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Mendes noted that there "was a very brief flirtation with that thought, but it was never going to happen, because I thought it would distract.”
Over 40 years since he first played the role, Connery is still widely regarded as the definitive cinematic incarnation of James Bond, despite credible interpretations of the character by the likes of Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, and what many believe to be a more authentic literary performance by Timothy Dalton. Connery's own feelings on Bond in interviews has run the gamut from bitter resentment to great fondness. At one point he joked he hated Bond so much that he'd have killed him, but he has also stated that he never hated Bond, he merely wanted to pursue other roles. Certainly, when the James Bond series was at its peak in the mid-1960s, his association with the 007 image was so intense that fine performances in his non-Bond films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie and Sidney Lumet's The Hill, were being virtually ignored at the time. When asked if he'd ever escape the identification, he replied "It's with me till I go in the box." At another point, he stated that he still cared about the future of the character and franchise, having been associated with the icon for too long not to care, and that all Bond films had their good points.
Post-James Bond Career
Although his most famous role was that of James Bond, Sean Connery has also maintained a highly successful career since, much more so than the other actors who assumed the role. As part of the agreement to appear in Diamonds are Forever, Connery was given carte blanche to produce two films at United Artists but felt that the only film made under this deal, The Offence, was buried by the studio. Apart from The Man Who Would Be King, most of Connery's successes in the next decade were as part of ensemble casts, in films like Murder on the Orient Express and A Bridge Too Far. After the experience with Never Say Never Again and the following court case Connery became unhappy with the major studios and for two years did not make any films. Following the European production The Name of the Rose Connery's interest in more credible material was revived. His performance as a hard-nosed cop in The Untouchables (1987) earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Subsequent box-office hits such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) andThe Hunt for Red October (1990) secured his place as a bankable leading man. He later received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. In more recent years, Connery's filmography has included its fair share of box office and critical disappointments such as The Avengers (1998), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), but he also received positive reviews for films including Finding Forrester(2000).
He was planning to star in a $80 million movie about Saladin and the Crusades that would be filmed in Jordan before the death of the producer Moustapha Akkad as a result of the 2005 Amman bombings.
There are a lot of apocryphal stories as to when Moore's name was first dropped as a possible candidate for
To date, Moore is the longest-serving James Bond actor at twelve years (from when he was signed in 1973, to his retirement from the role in 1985), and seven official films (Connery also made seven, but his last Bond film, Never Say Never Again (1983), is not part of the official EON Productions Bond series.) He is also the oldest actor to play Bond: he was 45 when he debuted and 58 when he announced his retirement on December 3, 1985.
