Sean Connery (1930-2020)

Like many, we at The Watchers were very saddened to hear of the passing of Sean Connery. The Oscar-winning actor and producer, the first actor to play James Bond on film, passed away on 31st October 2020, after a long illness, at the age of 90. 

Born Thomas Sean Connery on August 25th 1930 in Edinburgh, he held many different jobs before he became an actor, including a milkman, a nude model for students at the Edinburgh College of Art, a bricklayer, a coffin polisher, and a bodybuilder (he entered the 1953 Mr. Universe contest, finishing third in the tall man's division). At the age of 23, Connery had a choice between becoming a professional footballer (for which he showed much promise) or becoming an actor. In his own words: “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.”

Connery made his film debut in 1957 as Mike in crime drama Action Of The Tiger, which was directed by Terence Young (who would go on to direct three Bond films, all with Connery in the lead). One of the first film roles Connery had which made an impact was when he appeared in the 1959 Disney family fantasy adventure Darby O'Gill And The Little People, playing a strapping young caretaker called Michael McBride. It’s been claimed that this helped him land the role of Bond when producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli attended a screening and was impressed by the fistfight Sean has with a village bully at the climax of the film. 

After Darby O'Gill And The Little People, Connery appeared in several television movies and series, which included playing John Proctor in The Crucible (1959), Hotspur in An Age Of Kings (1960), the title role in Macbeth (1961), and Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1961). In 1962, he appeared on screen as Private Flanagan in the historical war drama The Longest Day, an all-star cast which told the events of D-Day from both Allied and German viewpoints. 

Of course, the film role for which he will be most closely associated is that of British secret agent James Bond in six official (and one unofficial) movies, starting with Dr. No (1962). Ian Fleming, Bond’s creator, initially did not like Connery’s casting, feeling he was too “unrefined” (and had had Cary Grant in mind instead). Connery allegedly improvised the iconic introduction “Bond. James Bond” as the line as written felt flat and sounded unnatural. He would also star as Bond in From Russia With Love (1963) [his personal favourite of his Bond films], Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967). After a particularly unpleasant time in Japan during the filming of You Only Live Twice, Connery announced that he would not be returning to the Bond franchise. 

Aside from playing Bond, during the 1960s, Connery appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film Marnie (1964) opposite Tippi Hedren. Anxious not to be typecast as a spy, Connery asked to see a script before he agreed to sign on. When told by Hitchcock’s agent that not even Cary Grant asked to see a script, Connery responded with “I’m not Cary Grant”. Despite playing a fairly unpleasant character- Mark’s treatment of Marnie at one point is particularly abhorrent- he started to lose the mantle of being Bond. He also  made the first of five films with Sidney Lumet in The Hill (1965) and appeared as explorer Roald Amundsen in The Red Tent (1969).

When George Lazenby refused to return to the Bond franchise after On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), the search was on for a replacement. At the last minute, Connery agreed to return as Bond for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) for a reported $1.25m, an astronomical salary which meant the special effects budget was scaled back significantly. Diamonds Are Forever has a certain camp charm about it, but it’s a far cry from the quality of the other Bond films Connery did. 

Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Connery appeared in a variety of different genres and types of roles. He appeared as alien exterminator Zed in John Boorman’s Zardoz (1974), reunited with Sidney Lumet for the all-star Agatha Christie adaptation Murder On The Orient Express (1974) in which he played Colonel Arbuthnot, and appeared opposite Michael Caine and Christopher Plummer in The Man Who Would Be King (1975) which Connery regarded as his favourite movie role. In 1976, he played Robin Hood opposite Audrey Hepburn in Robin And Marian, and took the role of Major General Roy Urquhart in A Bridge Too Far (1977). The real Roy Urquhart was an advisor on the film, but had no interest in films and didn’t know who Connery was or why his daughters were so excited that he was playing their father!

In 1981, Connery appeared as King Agamemnon in Terry Gilliam’s fantasy comedy adventure Time Bandits. Gilliam had not originally intended to cast Connery; the screenplay stated that, when Agamemnon took off his helmet, he “looked exactly like Sean Connery”. But in one of those wonderful coincidences, Connery got a hold of the script and expressed interest in doing the film. 

In 1983, Connery played Bond for the seventh time in Never Say Never Again, an unofficial Bond film (i.e. not produced by Eon Productions). Never Say Never Again is essentially a retread of Thunderball, and was released in the same year as an official Bond film: Octopussy. In the "Battle of the Bonds", Octopussy came out on top, despite Never Say Never Again doing well at the box-office.

 

In 1986, Connery played Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez in Highlander, reprising the role in the 1991 sequel Highlander II: The Quickening. Apart from James Bond, Ramirez is the only role that Connery played more than once. He also appeared as William von Baskerville in the adaptation of Umberto Eco’s mystery novel The Name Of The Rose (1986). 

In 1987, Connery starred as Irish-American cop Jim Malone in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. Connery would go on, not only to be nominated for an Oscar, but to win: he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1988. Connery rounded off the 1980s playing Professor Henry Jones in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.

The 1990s started with three iconic roles: Marko Ramius in The Hunt For Red October (1990), Barley in The Russia House (1990), and King Richard the Lionheart in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991). He also appeared as King Arthur in First Knight (1995), provided the voice of Draco the Dragon in DragonHeart (1996) and played John Patrick Mason in The Rock (1996). In 1998, he appeared as Sir August De Wynter in the big-screen adaptation of The Avengers, opposite Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes. Generally derided as one of the worst films ever, Connery slices the ham thick as the megalomaniacal weather-obsessed villain. At the end of the decade, Connery played art thief Mac in cat-and-mouse thriller Entrapment (1999) opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones. Starting the twenty-first century, he played reclusive author William Forrester who befriends a student in the 2000 drama Finding Forrester. 

Connery’s role as Allan Quatermain in fantasy action-adventure The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) would be his last live-action movie role. Persistent clashes between Connery and director Stephen Norrington went so far as to cause frequent shouting matches on set. After such an exhausting and fractious experience, Connery decided to take a step back from film-making. In 2006, he announced he had retired, although provided a voice-over for a Scottish animated film called Sir Billi in 2012.

In a career spanning seven decades, Connery was offered- and rejected- several high profile roles. He was offered the role of Gandalf in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, but turned it down as he did not understand the books. He also turned down the roles of John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993), Simon Gruber in Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995), King Edward I in Braveheart (1995), Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs (1991), The Architect in The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), Thomas Crown in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and Professor Waldman in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994). He was considered for a cameo role in Skyfall (2012)- to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Bond franchise- but the producers felt it might have been too distracting for the audience. This role- Kincade the gamekeeper- went to Albert Finney. 

Connery received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh in 1991, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to film in 2000. He was previously married to Australian actress Diane Cilento, who is the mother of his son Jason (also an actor). In 1975, he married Micheline Roquebrune and they remained married until Connery’s passing. 

The words “icon” and “legend” often get thrown around too liberally, but those words describe Connery to a tee. James Bond is such an iconic cinematic character and a lot of that is due to Connery’s original performance- suave, magnetic, yet dangerous. He will be sorely missed. 

Our thoughts are with his friends and family at this time.