How James Bond star Sir Sean Connery went from Navy man to Hollywood legend
SIR Sean Connery was hailed “one of the true greats of cinema” yesterday after the iconic James Bond star died in his sleep aged 90.
Connery’s incredible acting career spanned five decades and saw him win an Oscar in 1988 for his role in The Untouchables.
His widow, Moroccan-French painter Micheline, 91, paid tribute to him as a “gorgeous model of a man” while revealing he battled dementia during his final months.
Micheline, who first met him at a golf tournament in 1970, said: “It was no life for him. He was not able to express himself latterly.
“At least he died in his sleep and it was just so peaceful.”
Former Royal Navy sailor and bodybuilder Connery will forever remembered as the original 007 after rising from the slums of Edinburgh to conquer Hollywood.
He was chosen for his “animal virility” and played the suave superspy seven times. He burst on to the scene as 007 in Dr No in 1962 and, aged 59, was voted The Sexiest Man Alive.
Current 007 Daniel Craig, 52, a five-times Bond, said: “It’s with such sadness that I heard of the passing of one of the true greats of cinema.
“He defined an era and a style. The wit and charm he portrayed on screen could be measured in megawatts; he helped create the modern blockbuster.”
Speaking of the passionate golfer — the only player at his LA country club who used to carry his own bag — Daniel added: “Wherever he is, I hope there is a golf course.”
Following Connery's death, “Resht in Peash” began trending on Twitter in recognition of his unmistakable accent, mimicked worldwide.
It remained a constant despite roles as varied as a Russian submarine commander in The Hunt For Red October, Robin Hood, a Greek king in Time Bandits and an immortal Egyptian in Highlander.
Connery got his big Bond break after impressing the wife of film producer Albert R “Cubby” Broccoli — with his kissing technique.
Dana Broccoli saw him in 1959 Disney film Darby O’Gill and the Little People and persuaded her husband to audition him.
Cubby’s first reaction to Connery was that “he looked like a bricklayer”, but he was knocked out by his “animal virility”. Tall, dark, handsome — and moody — he was a perfect fit for the role of Bond.
But despite landing the part of 007, he held out no great hopes for Dr No. Connery was said to have told a fellow actor: “Oh, it’ll just be another job. Then I’ll be waiting for the phone to ring as usual.”
But his life was never the same again — as he became the top box office star in Britain and the US after the success of From Russia With Love in 1963, Goldfinger in 1964 and Thunderball in 1965.
He became bigger than the character, prompting Bond creator Ian Fleming to give his hero a Scottish background in novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
When Connery announced that You Only Live Twice would be his final film as Bond in 1967, the world was shocked — with even the Queen Mother asking him if it was really true.
But in 1971, Connery was lured back in Diamonds Are Forever for £965,000 plus a 12.5 per cent share of profits — then the highest film pay cheque in history.
He had been declared bankrupt, after being ripped off by his accountant. The mega-fee was one the young Connery could not have believed.
He was born Thomas Sean Connery on August 25, 1930, to a poor Irish family in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. The two toilets in the hall were shared with three other families and his father Joe earned £2 a week in a rubber factory.
As a youngster, he went on shoplifting missions using his baby brother Neil's pram as the cover for his stolen sweets and comics.
When his mother Effie found his stash, she belted him around the ear and marched him back to the shop to apologise.
Connery never forgot his humble beginnings, telling an interviewer when he was 63 that a bath was still “something special”.
He gave the millions he earned from one film to the Scottish International Education Trust, an organisation he founded to help poor Scots get an education.
After leaving school at 14, he delivered milk around the city on a horse and cart before joining the Royal Navy. Homesickness and an ulcer saw him invalided out after 17 months. A talented footballer, he was offered a trial at Manchester United by legendary manager Sir Matt Busby — but turned it down, believing he was too old at 24.
He started pumping iron at the Dunedin Amateur Weight-Lifting Club to look good for the girls and became a life model at Edinburgh College of Art.
During a winter job cleaning presses at the Evening News, he spied an ad in the paper for 6ft male extras needed for a musical. He also entered the 1953 Mr Universe contest — taking bronze.
It spurred him on to audition for a touring production of South Pacific, spawning his career. But he might never have got his licence to thrill as writer Fleming’s secret agent had it not been for a film director’s wife who first spotted his sex appeal.
In Sean Connery: The Measure Of A Man, biographer Christopher Bray told how Jacqueline Hill suggested her husband Alvin Rakoff use the little-known actor as the lead in a 1950s BBC play.
Rakoff, whose original leading man pulled out just three days before rehearsals, told his wife: “Sean Connery? You can’t understand a word he says.”
Jacqueline replied: “Well, the ladies would like it.”
Rakoff later said: “If anyone had told me that Sean Connery was going to go on to become one of the biggest movie stars ever, I’d have laughed in their face.”
It was the break that set him on the road to the role of Bond and the creation of a movie dynasty.
In 1957, Connery starred in Action Of The Tiger, directed by Terence Young — who would go on to direct three of the first four Bond movies.
Young said: “He had a sexual quality. To call it a star quality would be to overrate it, but the sex was plainly there.”
Connery married Diane Cilento, an actress he met in 1962 and their son Jason was born six weeks later.
They split after he met Micheline Roquebrune at the golf tournament in Morocco. After they wed in 1975, they lived in Marbella, Spain, to avoid the taxman and take advantage of the resort’s 24 golf courses.
Connery, who agreed to return as 007 one last time in “unofficial” Bond film Never Say Never Again in 1983, was knighted in 2000 at Holyrood Palace, under a mile from where he grew up.
A staunch supporter of Scottish independence, with “Scotland Forever” tattooed on his arm, he had been nominated twice before but was overlooked because of his political views.
His other films included The Man Who Would Be King, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade — in which he played the father of Harrison Ford’s action hero — and The Rock.
such as The Avengers and his final film, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003, were disappointing, prompting him to retire from the big screen.
In 2008, he told an interviewer: “I don’t think I’ll ever act again. I have so many wonderful memories, but those days are over.”
Since his retirement, home was New Providence Island, west of Nassau in the Bahamas. It was there that he passed away, with his family around him.
Micheline, who was married to Connery for 45 years, told the Mail on Sunday: “I was with him all the time and he just slipped away.
“It was what he wanted . . . to slip away without any fuss.”
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose party received £5,000 a month from Connery, said: “Our nation today mourns one of her best-loved sons.”
Sam Neill, who starred with him in 1990’s The Hunt For Red October, said: “Every day on set with Sean Connery was an object lesson in how to act on screen.
Elton John shared a picture of him and husband David Furnish posing with Connery and wrote: “A true screen legend.”
Biographer Bray added: “Sean Connery reshaped Britain’s sexual image. His friend Michael Caine once said that in British movies before the Sixties you could always tell who the bad guy was because he chased after women.
“Connery turned this cliche on its head: the women chased after him. He also reinvented the idea of Britain around the world.”
He's the number one spy
SEAN Connery was more than the greatest James Bond ever – he is where 007 begins and ends.
It was Connery who put the glint in the eye of Ian Fleming’s character. It was Connery who showed a generation of men how to light a cigarette, hold a drink, wear a tux – and get the girl.
Connery gave Bond his swagger, his cockiness, his willingness to have sex, fight someone to the death and quip a mocking one-liner – quite frequently all in the same scene.
In the Fleming books, which began in 1953 with Casino Royale, James Bond was very much a veteran of the Second World War – just like the author himself. But thanks to Connery’s iconic performances in the 007 films, starting in 1962 with Dr No, James Bond became as much a part of the Swinging Sixties as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
In the books, Bond is part of a rather grim country that is still emerging from the deprivations of wartime. But in the films, Bond leapt into glorious technicolour – travelling to exotic locations, enjoying recreational sex with a conveyor belt of willing beauties and, almost as an afterthought, saving the planet from some evil genius.
Man of the hour
When the world was post-Pill and pre-Aids, Connery made Bond look like the man of the hour. Connery made Bond fun, charismatic and impossibly glamorous. Every actor who has played Bond since has stood in Connery’s shadow, and been found wanting.
Connery quit playing 007 in 1983 and made many other films. But Bond and Connery are linked forever in our collective consciousness. And when word came that Connery had died at the age of 90, millions across the planet will have thought: “James Bond is dead.”
Connery’s seven films as Bond – Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again – define the character forever.
Thanks to Connery, Bond has to rank as the most famous character in film and fiction.
Frankly, Pussy, it doesn’t matter a damn who they choose to replace Daniel Craig. The original is still the greatest.
- By Tony Parsons, Sun on Sunday columnist
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A statement from Connery’s publicist said: “His wife Micheline and his two sons, Jason and Stephane, have confirmed that he died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family.
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Son Jason told the BBC: “A sad day for all who knew and loved my dad and a sad loss for all people around the world who enjoyed the wonderful gift he had as an actor.”
In a fitting tribute, Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said: “He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond whose indelible entrance into cinema history began when he announced those unforgettable words: ‘The name’s Bond . . . James Bond.’”
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