I’ve been a huge fan of
Scottish actor Sean Connery since I was a kid and first heard him say those immortal
words on screen, “Bond, James Bond,” in Dr. No.
The great Scot went on to portray Ian Fleming's iconic character James Bond in other films such as From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, and then acted in other fine films such as The Man Who Would be King, The Hill, and The Hunt for
Red October.
Paul Whitington at the
British newspaper the Independent takes a look back at Sean Connery’s life and
work as the actor turns 90.
On one of their various
televised travelogues, Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan engaged in a testy duel of
Sean Connery impressions. "I'll have a vodka Martini, shaken not
stirred," they hissed at each other, their faces contorting into worried
scowls as they tried to register the trademark rumbling rasp. They weren't bad
either, but then again, everyone thinks they do a good Connery.
At one point in the mid-1980s, few nights out remained
unpunctuated by a ham-fisted round of Connery impersonations, whether on the
relatively safe ground of 007 - "Ah, Miss Moneypenny", "The name
is Bond, James Bond", and so forth - or the more experimental territory of
Brian de Palma's Untouchables, in which Sean played a Chicago-Irish beat cop.
"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital,
you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way."
Even as I write those words, I can hear the
great man growling them, a testament to his enduring place in the canon of late
20th century popular culture. Connery turns 90 on Tuesday and although he
retired from cinema almost 15 years ago, his legend is undimmed. Earlier this
month, the Radio Times conducted a poll on the best Bond ever - as usual,
Connery came in first. Inevitably, it's his seven years as 007 that dominate
public perceptions of his career, but there was a whole lot more to Sean
Connery the actor than that.
It all began in
Edinburgh in the working class enclave of Fountainbridge, where Thomas Sean
Connery was born on August 25, 1930. The son of a factory worker and a cleaner,
he worked as a milkman before joining the Royal Navy at 16. A keen bodybuilder,
he was also a decent footballer, and considered turning professional before
wisely deciding acting might be a better long-term bet.
Early turns (invariably as a hoodlum) in
British films like No Road Back and Hell Drivers led to a breakthrough role
opposite Hollywood star Lana Turner in the melodrama Another Time, Another
Place. He already had a reputation as a hardman and when Turner's jealous
mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato visited the London set and pointed a gun at
Connery, the actor disarmed and humiliated him.
Perhaps it was this edgy air of menace that
saw him land the role of James Bond above the better known Cary Grant and David
Niven. The first Bond film Dr No exceeded its producers' wildest expectations,
and from the moment Connery appeared seated at a casino table, is asked his
name and says quietly: "Bond, James Bond," he was an international
star.
Six sequels followed, the best of them
probably From Russia With Love, but by the early 1970s, Connery was tired of
the increasingly cartoonish role, weary too of using toupees to hide his
baldness. And after he left the franchise, he set out to deconstruct his
typecasting by taking on more varied and challenging roles.
In the 1980s he enjoyed a career purple patch,
bringing charisma and authority to the role of a defecting Soviet sub commander
in The Hunt for Red October and winning an Oscar for The Untouchables. He was
an inspired choice to play Indy's fastidious dad in Indiana Jones And The Last
Crusade, but my favourite Connery performance was given in The Name Of The
Rose, in which he played the medieval sleuth William of Baskerville. In this
film, perhaps above any other, Connery proved there was more to him than Bond.
You can read the rest of
the piece via the below link:
Note: The top photo is the cover of Sean Connery's book Being a Scot, and the below photos are of
Sean Connery in Dr No, Goldfinger, The Man Who Would Be King, A Bridge Too Far,
The Untouchables, and The Hunt for Red October:
