Facts about Sir Connery
Sean Connery Biography
Sean Connery’s long career included many highlights, but the dashing Scot is still best-remembered as the first actor to play superspy James Bond in feature films.
Sean Connery left school at age 13, did a stint in the Royal Navy, and then became a laborer, bodybuilder and part-time model. While in London to enter the Mr. Universe contest of 1953, he landed a part in the chorus of a stage production of South Pacific. From there he made his way into the movies.
In 1962 he starred as secret agent James Bond in Dr. No; the film was a smash hit and Connery was suddenly an international star. By 1971 he had appeared in five more Bond movies: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), and Diamonds are Forever (1971). He gave up the role (being succeeded by Roger Moore) before returning once more in the film Never Say Never Again (1983).
Connery managed to break free of the Bond stereotype in the 1970s, thanks to movies such as the 1975 adventures The Wind and the Lion (with Candice Bergen) and The Man Who Would Be King (with Michael Caine). During the 1980s and ’90s he appeared in dozens of films, and won an Oscar for his supporting role as a grizzled Irish cop in The Untouchables (1987, with Kevin Costner).
Eternally hunky and no-nonsense, Connery continued to play the love interest to younger actresses such as Catherine Zeta-Jones (in 1999’s Entrapment). He also returned to the role of Bond in Never Say Never Again (1983, with Kim Basinger).
Sean Connery took fewer roles in the 21st century, although he did star in Finding Forrester (2000) and the action picture The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). Connery was denied a knighthood by Britain in 1998 due to his energetic support of Scottish independence, but he was finally knighted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Connery died “overnight” on October 30/31 of 2020, but an exact time has not yet been specified. “Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep, while in the Bahamas, having been ‘unwell for some time,'” BBC News reported.
Extra credit
According to his official site, Sean Connery enlisted in the Royal Navy at age 16, served for three years, and then worked as a “bricklayer, lifeguard, and coffin polisher” before getting into acting… Connery was People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for 1989… Connery has actually quit the role of Bond a few times. After You Only Live Twice (1967), he gave way to Australian model George Lazenby, who played Bond one time in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Connery returned to play Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) before handing the role over to Roger Moore. Connery then returned to the role with a wink as an older Bond in 1983’s Never Say Never Again… Sean Connery was married twice: to Australian actress Diane Cilento (from 1962 until their divorce in 1973), and to Micheline Roquebrune (from 1975 until his death in 2020). He had one child, the actor Jason Connery, born in 1963 to Connery and Cilento.