Sean Connery was 90 years old. He was the popular spy in seven films and won numerous awards during his long career, including an Oscar, three Golden Globes, and two Baftas.
The life of what was considered “the best James Bond of all time” began in a humble neighborhood in Edinburgh. Thomas Sean Connery was Joseph's first-born son, sometimes a worker, sometimes a truck driver, and always Catholic; and Effie, a Protestant cleaning lady.
At 20, unemployed but with strong arms, a friend recommended him as a stagehand at the King's Theatre. Behind the scenes, he discovered that this world was his world. That's why, two years later, when they offered him to work as an extra in the play Sixty Glorious Years, he said “yes.” He then abandoned Tommy to become Sean Connery. Already as Sean, he appeared as part of the chorus in the musical comedy Al Sur del Pacífico. At 27 he got his first big opportunity. The director of the BBC, Alvin Rakof, was looking for the male lead of Requiem for a middleweight when an actress suggested hiring him because “women would like him.”
His name and his indisputable bearing began to be known. He worked on Terence Young's Love's Frontier and Mists of Disquiet with Lana Turner. While he alternated his film appearances with performances on English television and plays, the novels written by Ian Fleming and starring an English secret agent whose name was Bond... James Bond was all the rage in bookstores.
The character of 007 was so attractive that two producers had the idea of bringing him to the big screen. Finding the right actor was not an easy task. He had to be able to look sophisticated, dress impeccably, seduce every girl he came across, and kill villains with the same distinction as he drank a Dry Martini.
Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the producers thought about Cary Grant but a million reasons - in this case dollars - made them abandon the idea. They considered another 200 names, including Richard Burton, James Mason, and Peter Finch; and, unconvinced, they summoned Connery. The day they saw him arrive “walking like a panther” from his office window, the role was his without the need for a screen test. Of course, they had to spend several weeks teaching him to behave, walk, speak, and even eat like an English knight and not like a Scottish warrior.
Connery inaugurated the James Bond series with 007 against Dr. No in 1962 alongside Ursula Andress. Fleming, who at first did not like him because of his accent, was so amazed that he introduced a father from Scotland into the saga as recognition. The Scottish actor played the British spy seven times until Roger Moore replaced him.
As the English spy, the actor showed how to be effortlessly magnetic and seductive. His character made him a fashion reference. Bond/Connery showed that a well-worn suit can be a deadly weapon... of seduction.
They are those beings blessed by genetics, who without resorting to surgeries or adopting a youthful style, time does not make them worse but rather improves them. He was one of the best-dressed men in the world and the king of masculinity in the '60s.
With more than sixty titles behind him, the Scot starred in seven about the most famous secret agent in cinema: “Agent 007 against Dr. No” (1962), “From Russia with Love” (1963), “James Bond against Goldfinger ” (1964), “Thunderbolt” (1965), “007: You Only Live Twice” (1967), “Diamonds Are Ever After” (1971) and “Never Say Never Again” (1983).
In this last film, Connery returned to the role of Agent 007 after an impasse in a film in which George Lazenby took over, and with it, he broke a Guinness record: being the highest-paid actor for a single film.
The actor pocketed what would now be about $40 million, a sum that he donated entirely to his foundation, the Scottish International Educational Trust, which supports the education of low-income children.
Although Bond brought him fame and success, it also brought him some typecasting. This led him to detest his character, so much so that he stated that if he could he would kill him. Obsessed with giving a new direction to his career, he worked on Robin and Marian with Audrey Hepburn, and, alongside Michael Caine, on The Man Who Would Be King, an adaptation of a short novel by Kipling.
Alfred Hitchcock summoned him to film Marnie and even allowed him to read the script first, something never seen before. Tippi Hedren, her co-star, asked how she would interpret her role as an icy woman in the face of such a “hottie.” He replied: “It's called acting, dear.”
His career continued unstoppable until 1987 when his role in “The Untouchables” earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, along with two Baftas and three Golden Globes.
