The suave Scotsman who made James Bond a screen icon

Sean Connery 1930–2020

Sean Connery played dozens of roles in his long career, but was inextricably linked to one. The Scotsman found global stardom as James Bond, the suave British secret agent who dispatches evildoers with unerring aplomb, beds comely temptresses, and prefers his martinis “shaken, not stirred.” Starting with 1962’s Dr. No and continuing in six more Bond films, Connery transformed the humorless protagonist of Ian Fleming’s spy novels into a character who combined dashing sophistication with smoldering sexuality, sly wit, and an edge of menace. Other actors would take on the Bond mantle, but Connery remains the quintessential 007 to many fans. He brought his audience-pleasing magnetism to other celebrated parts, playing a roguish British soldier in The Man Who Would Be King (1975), a street-smart Chicago beat cop in The Untouchables (1987), and a Soviet submarine captain in The Hunt for Red October (1990). “Connery looks absolutely confident in himself as a man,” critic Pauline Kael once wrote. “Women want to meet him, and men want to be him.”

Thomas Sean Connery grew up in an Edinburgh slum where “the dueling aromas of a rubber factory and a brewery” hung over the streets, said The Washington Post. “His father was a truck driver and his mother was a maid.” Connery dropped out of school at 12, and after working as a milkman, bricklayer, and lifeguard, he served two years in the Royal Navy. He then trained as a furniture polisher and took a job at a funeral parlor “nailing coffins.” In his downtime he lifted weights and “posed as a life model at an art school.” At the urging of a fellow weightlifter, he headed to London to enter a Mr. Universe contest—a trip with “a life-altering outcome,” said the Los Angeles Times. Hearing of a casting call for a touring production of South Pacific, he auditioned and was hired as a chorus member. On tour, he worked his way up to a small speaking role— and under the tutelage of an American castmate began consuming the works of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Joyce, and Tolstoy. “Reading,”

Connery later said, “can change one’s life. I’m the living evidence.” When he returned to London, “small stage and TV roles followed,” as did minor film parts. “Then came Dr. No,” said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Casting the unknown Connery was “a gamble,” but the producers were taken with the actor’s selfconfidence. Bond creator Fleming, who initially felt Connery was too rough-edged for the debonair spy, was won over by his girlfriend’s enthusiasm. The movie “was a sensation,” said The Times (U.K.). With its fast cars, tropical locales, and glamorous women, Dr. No thrilled audiences around the world. Connery was the top box-office star in the U.S. and U.K. in 1965 after the success of Bond sequels From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), and Thunderball (1965). But by 1967’s You Only Live Twice he felt boxed in by the role. “The first two or three were fun,” he said. “Jumping out of planes was entertaining, although it was tough on my hairpiece.” Taking a break from Bond, he “greatly expanded his repertoire,” appearing in commercial hits and “arthouse flops.”

“In the 1970s and ’80s,” said The New York Times, Connery “gracefully transformed himself into one of the grand old men of the movies.” It helped that “his magnetism did not fade”—in 1989, at age 59, he was named People’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” Connery, who bypassed Hollywood for homes in Spain and the Bahamas, was “darker and more complex” off camera. Fearful of being cheated, he brought endless lawsuits against producers and others— though he also gave massive sums to charity. His first of two wives, Diane Cilento, wrote a memoir in which she accused him of abusing her mentally and physically, claims Connery denied.

He made his last film in 2003, said Reuters.com; he retired after feuding with the director and pronouncing himself “fed up dealing with idiots.” Despite his success, Connery was unromantic about the actor’s lot, calling it “a job like being a bricklayer.” Keeping a level head was key to his success, he said in 1987. “My strength as an actor, I think, is that I’ve stayed close to the core of myself.”