Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born August 25, 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award winning Scottish actor and producer. He is best known for portraying the character James Bond in cinema, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.

Sir Sean Connery

In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. Connery has been polled as the “greatest living Scot” and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2000. In 1989, he was proclaimed the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, and in 1999, at the age of 69, he was voted the Sexiest Man of the Century.

Thomas Sean Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh to Euphemia “Effie” (née Maclean), a cleaning woman, and Joseph Connery, a factory worker and truck driver. His father was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent with roots in County Wexford, while his mother was a Scottish Protestant. He has a brother, Neil. He claims he was called Sean, his middle name, long before becoming an actor, explaining that when he was young he had an Irish friend named Séamus and that those who knew them both had decided to call Connery by his middle name whenever both were present.

His first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society. He then joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer. Afterwards, he returned to the co-op, then worked at other jobs, including a lorry driver, a labourer, artist’s model for the Edinburgh College of Art, coffin polisher, and bodybuilder.

One of his major early film parts was in Another Time, Another Place (1958). However, star Lana Turner’s gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, believed they were having an affair. He stormed onto the set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery take it away from him and twist his wrist, causing Stompanato to leave the set. Connery landed a leading role in Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959). He also had a prominent television role in Rudolph Cartier’s 1961 production of ‘Anna Karenina’ for BBC Television, in which he co-starred with Claire Bloom.

When he was younger, Connery was a keen footballer, having played for a team called Bonnyrigg Rose. He was even offered a trial with successful East Fife. While on tour with the cast of South Pacific, Connery was involved in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting. According to reports, Busby offered Connery a contract worth £25 a week immediately after the game. Connery admits that he was tempted to accept the offer, but he recalls, “I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves.”

Connery has appeared as James Bond in seven films, beginning with Dr No in 1962, and concluding with Never Say Never Again in 1983. In all, the Connery-Bond films are:

1. Dr No (1962)
2. From Russia With Love (1963)
3. Goldfinger (1964)
4. Thunderball (1965)
5. You Only Live Twice (1967)
6. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
7. Never Say Never Again (1983) (Unoffical Bond Film)

The physically imposing, yet light-footed Connery was discovered by Harry Saltzman, after numerous names as possible contenders for Bond were ruled out or unavailable, including most notably David Niven, who later played Bond in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale, and Cary Grant (who was said to have been part of the inspiration for Bond), who was ruled out after committing to only one film; some sources also suggest that Grant, at 58, turned the role down feeling he was too old for the part. Due to the relatively small budget, the producers were forced to go with an unknown, and Connery was cast partly for that reason.

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, reportedly had doubts about the casting, on the grounds that the muscular, 6’2″ Scotsman was too “unrefined”, but a female companion of Fleming’s told him that Connery had “it” and reportedly, that was good enough for Fleming. The author later changed his mind after Dr No premiered; he was so impressed, he went on to introduce a half-Scottish (and half-Swiss) heritage for his character in the later books. Connery’s on-screen portrayal of Bond is due in part to tutelage from director Terence Young, who helped to smooth over Connery’s rough edges, while utilising his physical presence and graceful movements during action sequences.

Robert Cotton wrote in a biography that Lois Maxwell (who played the first Miss Moneypenny) noticed, “Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat.” Cotton said, “Some cast members remarked that Connery was simply doing a Terence Young impression, but Young and Connery knew they were on the right track.”

Sean Connery gauges the scene in ‘Goldfinger’.

In 1967, following the unsatisfying experience of filming You Only Live Twice, Connery quit the role, having grown tired of the repetitive plots, lack of character development, and the general public’s growing demands on him and his privacy (as well as a fear of being typecast). He also stated that he did not like the direction in which the Bond series was heading, feeling that the filmmakers were straying too far from the source material.

The producers hired George Lazenby to take over the role in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. However, Lazenby backed out of a seven-film contract, and quit before the film was even released. His performance met with a mixed response from fans and critics. Connery was enticed back for £1.2 million — at the time, a record salary for an actor. He made his final “official” appearance as the secret agent in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever.

As a result of a deal between EON Productions and Kevin McClory (co-writer of Thunderball), the latter was given the right to create a remake of Thunderball 13 years after the release of the original film. In the late 1970s, McClory teamed with Connery to write an original James Bond film, but the idea was blocked by lawsuits brought by EON and United Artists. The project was revived in the 1980s, and Connery signed to play Bond for the seventh and final time in the unofficial film Never Say Never Again. The title of the film is believed to have derived from Connery’s comments after the release of Diamonds Are Forever. After filming it, he claimed he would never play James Bond again.

Connery in ‘Dr No’. He didn’t find favour with Ian Fleming initially.

Over 40 years after he first played the role, Connery is still widely regarded as the definitive cinematic incarnation of James Bond, despite popular interpretations by the likes of Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton, the latter often considered closer to the Bond of the novels. Connery’s own feelings on Bond in interviews have run the gamut from bitter resentment to great fondness. At one point, he said that he hated the Bond character so much that he’d have killed him, but he has also stated that he never hated Bond, but 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 different performances in his non-Bond films, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie, A Fine Madness, and Sidney Lumet’s The Hill, were virtually ignored. When asked if he’d ever escape the identification, he replied, “Never. It’s with me till I go in the box.”

At another point, Connery 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.

Although his most famous role was that of Bond, Sean Connery has also maintained a successful career since, much more so than any of the other actors who assumed the role. 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 such as Murder on the Orient Express and A Bridge Too Far. After his 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 successful European production The Name of the Rose, for which he won a BAFTA award, Connery’s interest in credible material was revived. That same year, a supporting role in Highlander showcased his ability to play older, wise mentors to young protagonists, which would become a recurring role in many of his later films. The following year, his acclaimed 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) (in which he played father to Harrison Ford, actually only 12 years his junior), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999) re-established him as a bankable leading man.

Sean Connery in ‘The Untouchables’.

Both Last Crusade and The Rock alluded to his James Bond days. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted “the father of Indy” to be Connery since Bond directly inspired the Indiana Jones series, while his character in The Rock, John Patrick Mason, was a British secret service agent imprisoned since the 1960s.

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 also later received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.

In July 2005, it was reported that he had decided to retire from film-making, following disillusionment with the “idiots now in Hollywood.” At the Tartan Day celebrations in New York in March 2006, Connery again confirmed his retirement from acting, and stated that he was now writing a history book. On August 25, 2008, his 78th birthday, Connery unveiled his autobiography Being a Scot, co-written with Murray Grigor.

Connery is a member of the Scottish National Party, a centre-left political party campaigning for Scottish independence, and has supported the party financially and through personal appearances. His support for the SNP 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.

See also:

• Bond, James: Actors