Biography
Connery was born in Fountainbridge (Edinburgh) Scotland on 25 August 1930 to Joseph Connery and Euphamia 'Effie' MacLean. He claims he was called by his middle name Sean long before he became an actor, explaining he had an Irish friend named Seamus and those who knew them decided to call him by his middle name 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 (under the name Thom Connery) for Scotland in the 1953 Mr. Universe contest won by Bill Pearl and got third place in the tall man's division. Another competitor, Johnny Isaacs, suggested that he try out for a stage production of South Pacific, which led to work on the stage, TV, and eventually film. As a weight lifter, his nickname was "Big Tam".
He was married to Australian-born actress Diane Cilento from 1962 until 1973 (he was her second husband). With Cilento he had a son, Jason Connery, who also became an actor, and was educated at Millfield School in Somerset, England. Since 1975, Sean Connery has been married to French-Tunisian artist Micheline Roquebrune Connery.
Political causes
He has long advocated Scottish independence, and has supported the Scottish National Party, 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." [1]
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 suggested in 1997 that the award had been declined by the 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. Sean 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.
James Bond
Sean Connery as 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 ruled out or unavailable, including 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 (the author even went on to introduce a half-Scottish (and half-Swiss) heritage for his literary character in the later books). Young helped to smooth over Connery's rough and tumble edges while utilizing his imposing physicality yet amazingly graceful, cat-like movements during action sequences.
Connery's favorite Bond was From Russia with Love, one of the most critically acclaimed films in the series. He confirmed it in a 2002 interview with Sam Donaldson for ABCNews.com. (American Movie Classics erroneously listed 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 to Albert R. Broccoli hiring George Lazenby to continue the film franchise in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. After the film's release, however, Lazenby backed out of a seven-film contract. Broccoli again asked Connery to return to the role and paid him $1.25 million plus 12.5% of the film's profits, or about $6 million total to do so, at the time the highest salary of any actor. Connery returned one final official time in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, quitting the role shortly after 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.
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
Sean Connery at a Tartan Day celebration in Washington D.C.
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 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 critically celebrated 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) – in which he played father to Harrison Ford, actually under 12 years his junior, The Hunt for Red October (1990) and The Rock (1996) 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).
In September 2004, media reports indicated that Connery intended to retire after he pulled out of Josiah's Canon, which is to be released in 2005. However, in a December 2004 interview with The Scotsman newspaper 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 30th/31st 2005, it was widely reported in the broadcast media, and again in The Scotsman[2] 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. He made a big impression on actors such as Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner and Christopher Lambert, who considered him a great friend during filming.
He was planning to star in a $80 million movie about Saladin and the Crusades that would be filmed in Jordan before the producer Moustapha Akkad was killed in the 2005 Amman bombings.
Health
On March 12, 2006, he had started recovery after having surgery to remove a kidney tumour earlier that month. The tumour is thought to be benign.
Filmography
Lilacs in the Spring(1954)
No Road Back (1957)
Hell Drivers (1957)
Action of the Tiger (1957)
Time Lock (1957)
Another Time, Another Place (1958)
Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)
Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)
On the Fiddle (1961)
The Frightened City (1961)
The Longest Day (1962)
Dr. No (1962)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Marnie (1964)
Sean Connery and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones.
Women of Straw (1964)
Goldfinger (1964)
The Hill (1965)
Thunderball (1965)
A New World (1966) (Cameo)
A Fine Madness (1966)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Shalako (1968)
The Bowler and the Bonnet (1969) (documentary) (also director)
The Molly Maguires (1970)
The Red Tent (1971)
The Anderson Tapes (1971)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
A Spain Golf Course (1972) (short subject)
The Offence (1973)
Zardoz (1974)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Terrorists (1975)
The Dream Factory (1975) (documentary)
The Wind and the Lion (1975)
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Robin and Marian (1976)
The Next Man (1976)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
The Great Train Robbery (1979)
Meteor (1979)
Cuba (1979)
Outland (1981)
Time Bandits (1981)
G'ole! (1982) (documentary) (narrator)
Five Days One Summer (1982)
Wrong Is Right (1982)
Sean Connery's Edinburgh (1983) (short subject)
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)
Highlander (1986)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Untouchables (1987) as Jim Malone
The Presidio (1988)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The Russia House (1990)
Family Business (1991)
Medicine Man (1992) (also executive producer)
Rising Sun (1993) (also executive producer)
A Good Man in Africa (1994)
Just Cause (1995)
First Knight (1995)
Dragonheart (1996) (voice)
The Rock (1996) (also executive producer)
The Avengers (1998)
Entrapment (1999) (also producer)
Finding Forrester (2000)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Trivia
Sean Connery, as a youth, had a job delivering milk to Fettes College, in Edinburgh, Scotland. This was James Bond's second school.
Wore a toupee in all the James Bond movies. He began losing his hair at 21. Privately and in most other movies, he wears none.
In the cartoon series Sonic Underground, Connery is the voice of Athair, great-grandfather of Knuckles the Echidna.
First American television role was as a porter in an episode of The Jack Benny Show.
Darrell Hammond plays Connery in the Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches on Saturday Night Live. In these sketches, Connery is the contestant on all but two of the sketches, where he insults host Alex Trebek (played by Will Ferrell) with withering invective and sexual innuendo, answers no questions right. The sketches aired twice a season on SNL from 1996-2002, and returned once more when Ferrell guest-hosted in 2005.
Starred in Never Say Never Again with Klaus Maria Brandauer. Coincidentally, Brandauer was originally considered to play Marko Ramius in The Hunt for Red October.
Has a tattoo that says "Scotland Forever" on his forearm.
Sean Connery's line in Finding Forrester, "You're the man now, dog," became immortalized as the phrase that started the YTMND website. In the same scene, another phrase, "Punch the keys for God's sake!", has also become immortalised and used as YTMND's 'parallel universe'.
He caused an uproar in a December 1987 interview with Barbara Walters in which he said it was OK for a man to hit a woman. Connery had made similar remarks in a November 1965 interview with Playboy magazine on the set of "Thunderball".
George Lucas has said on multiple occasions that Connery's portrayal of the character James Bond was one of the primary inspirations for his Indiana Jones character. As a tribute to this, when casting his third Indiana Jones film, The Last Crusade, Lucas chose Connery for the role of Indiana's father, with his reasoning being "Who else could play Indiana Jones' father, but the guy who inspired all of this in the first place, James Bond himself!" (Sean Connery)
Sean Connery's likeness was used in Metal Gear 2 as a template for the character Big Boss.
According to the "behind the scenes" features of the DVD for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Connery is an excellent golfer and also a very fine dancer; castmate Tony Curran recounts that his mother visited the set when they were having "Jazz Night" and Connery danced with her.
Is the honorary chairman of the Friends of Scotland organization.
