TRUTH ABOUT 007 LEGEND’S CASINO WIN REVEALED Sir Sean Connery
Publicist admits jackpot was a fake and 007 handed back the cash
It’s enough to leave any Bond fan shaken and a little stirred… movie bosses faked Sean Connery winning thousands of pounds at a casino to ensure his first 007 film was a success.
When the then unknown actor broke the bank playing roulette, the story made headlines across the world just as Dr No was released in cinemas.
Connery, sitting in a casino in Italy, placed all his money – in true James Bond fashion – on No17 and watched his number come in three times in a row, seemingly winning over several billion lire.
But an unearthed interview with former Bond publicist Jerry Juroe has revealed Connery’s casino success was rigged and part of an orchestrated European campaign to drive publicity for Dr No and it’s then little-known star.
Juroe said the whole thing had been a hoax and Connery was in on the stunt.
He said: “The main publicity we did in Europe was to take Sean on his first promotional tour in Italy.
“We did a publicity stunt at a gambling resort just outside of Turin, on the Italian side of the Swiss Alps. “The idea was that this unknown British actor named Sean Connery was going to break the bank. We did it and it hit the wires and broke in New York as a front-page story.
“The stunt was easy to accomplish because the wheel was rigged, the bets were rigged and for a brief period of time Sean – as well as one or two other people who were part and parcel of the operation – was sitting there winning money until
he literally broke the bank. It was not that difficult but, I must tell you, as soon as it was handed over, the money was handed back. It was quite a few billion lire. Not million – billion.”
The revelations, a year after Connery’s death, come in new book The James Bond Archives, by Paul Duncan, who was given exclusive access to archive footage kept by the production company behind the Bond films.
To this day, film trivia and gambling websites record the incredible tale on January 10, 1963, when the actor broke the casino’s bank and was pictured with a stack of chips.
Filming had already begun on the second Bond film, From Russia With Love, before Dr No was released in America in May that year.
Ironically, Dr No has the first casino scene where Bond wins and Connery – who died aged 90 on October 31 last year – gets to say the classic line, “The namname is Bond, JamJames Bond,” for the first time.
Duncan s p ent two yeayears combing thrthrough more than one million photophotos, designs, stor yboardsybo and other productionproductio materials after being given unrestricted access by Eon Productions to their Bond archives.
His book, published by Taschen, gives the most complete account of the making of ever y f i lm, including behind-the-scenes stories from cast and crew.
Duncan, 57, said: “To be allowed to go through all the Eon archives was a wonderful privilege.
“Jerry Juroe died recently but in the archive there were behind- the- scenes interviews that had been kept, people who were there at the time the films were made, telling their wonderful stories, and many of them are in my book.”
“Sean was a wonderful Bond. He had this sort of sardonic wit that he brought to the character that really connected with people when his films came out.”
The idea this was that n actor unknow the would break was a bank. It story front-page in the US