Thomas Sean Connery
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Sean Connery originated the role of James Bond on screen in 1962’s Dr. No and played the character in seven films. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Jim Malone in 1987’s The Untouchables. His filmography includes The Man Who Would Be King 1975, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989, and The Hunt for Red October 1990.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Sean Connery — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Sean Connery by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Sean Connery — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
On August 25, 1930, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Euphemia McLean and Joseph Connery welcomed their son Sean. McLean worked as a cleaning lady; Connery was a factory worker and truck driver.
Before entering acting, Connery worked as a milkman, bricklayer, coffin polisher, and bodybuilder. He joined the Royal Navy but was discharged due to stomach ulcers. At age 23, he chose acting over a potential professional soccer career.
In 1962, Connery was cast as James Bond in Dr. No. He continued in the role through From Russia with Love 1963, Goldfinger 1964, Thunderball 1965, You Only Live Twice 1967, Diamonds Are Forever 1971, and Never Say Never Again 1983.
Beyond Bond, Connery starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie 1964, The Hill 1965, Murder on the Orient Express 1974, and The Man Who Would Be King 1975. His role as a veteran Irish cop in The Untouchables 1987 earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 1989 he played Indiana Jones’s father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, followed by The Hunt for Red October 1990, The Rock 1996, and Finding Forrester 2000.
Connery married actress Diane Cilento in 1962. Their son, Jason Connery, was born January 11, 1963. He announced separation from Cilento in February 1971 and divorced in 1974. In 1975, he married Micheline Roquebrune, who brought three stepchildren into the marriage. They remained together until his death.
During the filming of Diamonds Are Forever 1971, he had relationships with Jill St. John and Lana Wood.
Connery’s 1962 performance as James Bond in Dr. No set the template for the character, influencing every subsequent actor. He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2006, presented by Harrison Ford. In 1989, People magazine named him Sexiest Man Alive, and in 1999, Sexiest Man of the Century. He was voted The Greatest Living Scot in 2011.
He died at age 90 on October 31, 2020, in Nassau, Bahamas.
Browse the complete filmography of Sean Connery — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Sean Connery — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Sean Connery's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Sean Connery — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Was Called Sean Long Before I Was an Actor, I Had an Irish Buddy When I Was 12 Named Seamus Pronounced Shay Mus. so They Nicknamed Us Seamus and Shawn and It Stuck.
I Never Disliked Bond, as Some Have Thought. Creating a Character Like That Does Take a Certain Craft. It’s Simply Natural to Seek Other Roles.
More Than Anything Else, I’d Like to Be an Old Man with a Good Face, Like Alfred Hitchcock or Pablo Picasso. They Know That Life Is Not Just a Popularity Contest.
I’ve Honestly Not Been Too Aware of My Age Until I Went to the Doctor for a Full Check Up. He Said I Had the Heart of a Young Man but You’re Not Young, You’re 40.
Some Age, Others Mature.
I’m an Actor It’s Not Brain Surgery. If I Do My Job Right, People Won’t Ask for Their Money Back.
I Have Always Hated That Damn James Bond. I’d Like to Kill Him.
I’ve Never Kept a Record of Anything. I Gave Away Everything: All the Posters, the Memorabilia That Would Have Been Helpful and Financially Rewarding.
I Care About Bond and What Happens to Him. You Cannot Be Connected with a Character for This Long and Not Have an Interest. All the Bond Films Had Their Good Points.
I’m Fed up with the Idiots, the Ever Widening Gap Between People Who Know How to Make Movies and Those Who Green Light Them. I Don’t Say They’re All Idiots I’m Just Saying There’s a Lot of Them. It Would Almost Need a Mafia Like Offer I Couldn’t Refuse to Do Another Movie.
I Think the Fact That One’s Hair Disappeared Early Made It Easier. I Never Had a Transition Problem. I’ve Always Played Older. I Played Harrison Ford’s Father and Dustin Hoffman’s Father. and This Year, I’m Going to Be 65. I’m Hardly Going to Get into a Weight Program and Do Tarzan. I Could Have the Best Body Sculpting in the World, but I’m Never Going to Be James Bond Again.
I Had No Grand Plan. Everyone Talks About How They Knew the Bond Films Were Going to Be a Success, but It Simply Isn’t True.
It Is Said That a Total Ban on Handguns, Including .22S, Would Take Away Innocent Pleasure from Thousands of People. Is That More or Less Pleasure Than Watching Your Child Grow Up?
There’s One Major Difference Between James Bond and Me. He Is Able to Sort Out Problems!
I Never Trashed a Hotel Room or Did Drugs. I Understand If You Get Caught in a Fight, but to Take It Out on a Room That Implies Some Psychiatric Disorder. the Way I Was Brought up Made Me Think About the Person Who Has to Clean up Afterwards.
I Did Smoke Pot a Few Times but Nothing Else. I Would Never Inject. I’m Too Fond of the Drink. at Times I Can Go Two Weeks or More Without It, but Then I’m Quite Enthusiastic to Get Back to the Taste Again.
Dealing with This Financial Stuff Was Too Much for Me. It Was Back to Education and I Had to Learn to Understand It All Myself.
Peter Mandelson, Two Times Thrown Out, Is Now Representing Britain in Europe. in the Olden Times, They Would Have Hung Him up by His Feet. the Decisions in the UK Are Made by President Tony Blair and a Couple of His Cooks in the Kitchen.
I Am Happy to Say That I Sued Allied Artists for Cosmetic Bookkeeping and They’re Bankrupt.
It Reads as Though One Had Made Great Dramatic Decisions, but in Fact One Didn’t. I Certainly Had the Drive from the Beginning, but the Targets and Ambitions Were Much, Much Less.
One of the Things That Strikes Me Is That No Matter How Difficult or Underprivileged the Situation You Were Living in as a Child, It Wasn’t Considered Difficult. I Don’t Think as Children, You Are Aware of It. You Have Nothing to Compare It To.
“The Time Came for Me to Retire Because of My Rather Unfortunate Last Movie . . . the Cost to Me in Terms of Frustration and Avoiding Going to Jail for Murder Cannot Have Continued.
Whenever I’ve Tangled with a Beautiful Spy, Have You Noticed What Invariably Happens? Even If I Know the Girl Is a Nasty and Dangerous Little Snake, I’ve Still Had to Kiss Her First and Kill Her Later.
Anyone Contemplating a Film Career Could Do No Better Than Read Alexander Mackendrick’s Book on Film Making: an Introduction to the Craft of the Director.
Perhaps I’m Not a Good Actor, but I Would Be Even Worse at Doing Anything Else.
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.
It Would Appear I’m an Inspiration for Older Men. Do I Think I’m Sexy? I’ve Been Told I Am. I Know That I Find Certain People Attractive and They Find Me Attractive and Are Presumptuous Enough to Think That’s Sexy. I Can’t Answer for All Those Fat Guys Out There in Their Sixties. Are They More Virile? Well, It’s Years Since I Went to Bed with a Sixtyish Balding Man. Look, I’m Dealing with Maturity Alright. I’m Much More Interest in Keeping Enthusiastic Than Anything Else.
Little-known facts about Sean Connery — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Of the six actors who played James Bond, he is the only one who served in the Royal Navy, just like the fictional spy.
Terry Gilliam did not intend to cast Connery as King Agamemnon in Time Bandits 1981; he simply wrote that Agamemnon looked exactly like Sean Connery when he took off his helmet. Connery expressed interest and took the role.
He was once stopped for speeding by a police officer named Sergeant James Bond.
He donated his record salary for returning as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever 1971 to a Scottish charity.
He donated his salary from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 1991 to charity.
During the filming of Never Say Never Again 1983, he angered a martial arts instructor who broke his wrist; Connery did not realize it was broken for years. The instructor was Steven Seagal.
He wore a toupee in movies from Dr. No onward, having begun losing his hair at age 17. He started wearing a hairpiece in 1958.
He has two small tattoos on his right arm: Scotland forever and Mum and Dad, gotten when he enlisted in the Royal Navy at age 16.
He turned down the title role in The Thomas Crown Affair 1968, later calling it a huge mistake.
His favorite Bond film is From Russia with Love 1963.
He improvised the line Bond. James Bond in Dr. No 1962 after finding I am James Bond flat; he added the pause to give it its iconic effect.
He turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy because he did not want to film in New Zealand for 18 months and could not understand the novels, costing an estimated $450 million.
He turned down the role of Simon Gruber in Die Hard: With a Vengeance 1995 due to the character’s diabolical nature.
As a milkman, he delivered to Fettes School in Edinburgh, the same school James Bond attended in Ian Fleming’s novels.
After his Merchant Navy service, he worked as a nude model for Edinburgh art students.
He was involved with both Jill St. John and Lana Wood while filming Diamonds Are Forever 1971.
He was delighted to receive the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, despite his reputation as a harsh critic of Hollywood.
He was good friends with Michael Caine, Richard Harris, and Roger Moore.
He turned down the role of John Hammond in Jurassic Park 1993.
At his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony in 2006, Harrison Ford presented the award and told him, John Wayne gave us the old West. James Stewart gave us our town. You gave us the world.
He formerly worked as a coffin polisher.
Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, initially objected to Connery’s casting in Dr. No 1962, feeling he was too unrefined; Fleming wanted Cary Grant. He later changed his mind.
He joined the Merchant Navy as a teenager but left due to stomach ulcers, receiving a disability pension.
He was almost killed during the helicopter chase scene in From Russia with Love 1963 when the pilot flew too close.
He brought future Bond actor Roger Moore to a press screening of Diamonds Are Forever 1971 in Paris.
He once worked as a bricklayer.
He had radiation therapy in 1993 for benign tumors on his vocal cords, which caused him to lose his voice while filming Rising Sun 1993.
He won the role of James Bond after producer Albert R. Broccoli saw him in Darby O’Gill and the Little People 1959, impressed by his fistfight scene.
He announced his retirement in 2006 during a Tartan Week interview in New York City.
The role of Mufasa in The Lion King 1994 was written with him in mind.
He owned a film production company named Fountainbridge Films, after the area of Edinburgh where he was born.
His father was of half Irish and half Scottish descent; his mother was of Scottish ancestry.
He regarded his role in The Man Who Would Be King 1975 as his favorite.
He temporarily worked as a milk delivery man.
He ties with Roger Moore for the most portrayals of James Bond if Never Say Never Again 1983 is counted; otherwise Moore holds the record.
He received excellent reviews for his role in Macbeth 1961 and longed to make a film version, but plans were terminated by Roman Polanski’s adaptation in 1971.
He had cataracts removed from both eyes in 2003.
He underwent surgery in 2006 to remove a benign tumor from his kidney.
He pulled out of a seven-figure deal for a planned autobiography twice, once with ghostwriter Hunter Davies in 2005.
In 1953, he finished third in the tall man’s division of the Mr. Universe contest.
Producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli cast him because he was big, tough-looking, yet moved gracefully.
He started smoking at age nine.
He was considered for a surprise cameo in Skyfall 2012, but the role went to Albert Finney.
He was on bad terms with Albert R. Broccoli after leaving the Bond series and declined to attend his funeral.
He got into an altercation with gangster Johnny Stompanato on the set of Another Time, Another Place 1958 after Stompanato threatened actress Lana Turner.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Sean Connery.
Celebrities similar to Sean Connery — same craft, ranked by reach.
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