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Sean Connery

Biography

 The eldest of two sons born to a truckdriver father and charwoman mother living in an Edinburgh, Scotland, tenement, Thomas Sean Connery started helping support his family by delivering milk at the age of nine. Steady education was a luxury he could barely afford, and he eventually left school at the age of thirteen, first taking jobs as a laborer, steel bender, and cement mixer, and then, at 15, enlisting in the British Royal Navy for what was to have been a 12-year stint. Severe stomach ulcers brought about his discharge within three years, at which point he returned to Edinburgh and set about making his living working different jobs, such as a bricklayer, lifeguard, and coffin polisher. Connery occupied his off-work hours by bodybuilding, a pastime that eventually paid off handsomely when he began earning a bit of extra money posing for art classes and swimwear photo shoots. His painstaking efforts to develop his physique gave him 3rd place in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest.

While in London competing in the Mr. Universe contest, Connery auditioned for and won a part as a singing sailor in the chorus of a year-long touring production of South Pacific. When asked how he wished to be billed for the musical, the unlettered, untried actor, who went by his boyhood diminutive of Tommy, settled on the marquee-worthy name Sean Connery. Though he had stumbled into acting on a whim (his real career aspiration at the time was to become a professional soccer player), subsequent intensive dancing, singing, and reading lessons prepared him quite nicely for his future as an actor, which led in turn to respectable roles in British TV productions. He gained particularly good reviews for his work in the BBC's staging of the American telefilm Requiem for a Heavyweight. Though his strictly supporting efforts in feature films were less distinguished, Connery diligently worked his way up from bit parts to more substantial secondary roles, earning his first big-screen assignment of any note in the 1958 Lana Turner film Another Time, Another Place.

Connery might have merrily continued on as a minor player if he hadn't beat out several name actors to originate the cinematic incarnation of novelist Ian Fleming's glossy superspy James Bond in 1962's Dr. No, the first feature in what would prove an indefatigable and immensely lucrative franchise in the decades to come. Producer Harry Saltzman awarded Connery the role of agent 007 on the basis of a single interview and after watching him walk down the street. (Incidentally, Connery has trained extensively in movement, and prepares for each role by working out how the character should move, which is perhaps why he is so dead-on in each of his widely differing roles.)

The former bodybuilder's rugged, disarming interpretation of the dapper and daring agent with a license to kill brought him almost instant international fame, and he would go on to reprise the characterization with clockwork regularity throughout the decade, in From Russia, With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967). Connery became so dangerously identified with the star-making role that his up-coming performances in non-Bond films, while uniformly creditable, were not enthusiastically endorsed by fans or critics. Grown weary of his confining employment as James Bond, he agreed to perform his Bond duties one last time, in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, only after demanding, and receiving, a then-unprecedented salary of $1.25 million plus a percentage and vowing that he would "never again" play the part.

Sprung from the trap the series had become, Connery sought to break out of his Bond typecasting by accepting roles in such diverse pictures as the science-fiction flick Zardoz (1974), Sidney Lumet's stylish adaptation of the Agatha Christie whodunnit Murder on the Orient Express (1974), John Huston's satisfying Rudyard Kipling adventure adaptation The Man Who Would Be King (1975), the medieval romance Robin and Marian (1976), and Peter Hyams' High Noon-esque sci-fi film Outland (1981). But just when it seemed Connery had entirely forsaken the British Secret Service, he resurfaced as a much wiser and appealingly more mature Bond in the prophetically named 1983 adventure Never Say Never Again. Though the film, which was a loose remake of 1965's Thunderball, was rather pedestrian, Connery proved more popular than ever in the role. In fact, Connery just seemed to be getting better and better with age, and despite graying, rapidly disappearing hair and widening girth, his appeal showed no signs of diminishing, a fact proven when People named the 60-year-old actor 1989's Sexiest Man Alive.

As he headed intrepidly into his senior years, Connery carved out a different kind of superstardom for himself, tackling character roles in films like 1987's The Untouchables (his portrait of a tough-as-nails Prohibition-era Irish cop in the film garnered him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which he played delightfully against type as Harrison Ford's irascible, tweedy archaeologist pop. More conventional leading roles in the 1990 adaptation of John Le Carrt's The Russia House (as a British publisher who becomes embroiled in a high-stakes international intrigue with Michelle Pfeiffer), 1990's The Hunt for Red October (as a Russian sub commander), and 1993's Rising Sun (as an expert in all things Japanese) kept his superstar patina buffed to high polish.

In the mid '90s, Connery divided his time between the middling medieval tales First Knight (1995) and Dragonheart (1996) and the more successful contemporary action dramas Just Cause (1995) and The Rock (1996). After a year's absence from theaters, he returned with a vengeance in the 1998 feature-film version of the '60s cult TV classic The Avengers, in which he appeared in an atypical capacity as the villain to Ralph Fiennes' natty agent Jonathan Steed and Uma Thurman's leather-clad amateur sleuth Emma Peel. In 1999, Connery starred in and produced Entrapment, a knotty love story-thriller, in which he played a cat burglar who teams up with a female thief (Catherine Zeta-Jones) for equal measures of bank-robbing and January-December-style romance. As for upcoming projects, he has signed a first-look, multi-year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment under which he will produce and perhaps star in several films through his Fountainbridge Films production company. Also in various stages of development are sequels to some of Connery's most popular outings Time Bandits, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Rock and it is even possible that he will make a return engagement as James Bond.

Just as his popularity shows no signs of abating, the very active Connery, now in his late sixties, continues to work as tirelessly as ever, much to the financial benefit of the Scottish National Theater, which the venerable actor supports with generous contributions from his leading-man salaries. His extreme nationalism has manifested itself in other ways: In the early '70s, he founded the Scottish International Education Trust, an organization dedicated to helping young Scots obtain an education; and though he resides primarily in Marbella, Spain, he remains active in the movement for Scottish independence, and, more recently, has been vocal in petitioning the Scottish government to issue a ban on all handguns. As for his personal life, Connery has been married to French-Moroccan painter Micheline Roquebrune since 1975. He has a son, actor Jason Connery, from his first marriage to Australian-born actress Diane Cilento.

Filmography
1 Let's Make Up (extra) 1955
2 Time Lock 2nd Welder 1957
3 No Road Back Spike 1957
4 Action of the Tiger Mike 1957
5 Hell Drivers Tom 1957
6 Another Time, Another Place Mark Trevor 1958
7 Tarzan's Greatest Adventure O'Bannion 1959
8 Darby O'Gill and the Little People Michael McBride 1959
9 Operation Snafu Pedlar Pascoe 1961
10 The Frightened City Paddy Damion 1961
11 The Longest Day Private Flanagan 1962
12 Dr. No James Bond 1962
13 From Russia With Love James Bond 1963
14 Goldfinger James Bond 1964
15 Woman of Straw Anthony Richmond 1964
16 Marnie Mark Rutland 1964
17 The Hill Trooper Joe Roberts 1965
18 Thunderball James Bond 1965
19 Un Monde Nouveau ?  1966
20 A Fine Madness Samson Shillitoe 1966
21 You Only Live Twice James Bond 1967
22 Shalako Shalako 1968
23 The Molly Maguires Jack Kehoe 1970
24 Krasnaya Palatka Roald Amundsen 1971
25 The Anderson tapes John Anderson 1971
26 Diamonds Are Forever James Bond 1971
27 Espana Campo de Golf (himself) 1972
28 Zardoz Zed 1973
29 The Offence Detective Sergeant Johnson 1973
30 Murder on the Orient Express Colonel Arbuthnott 1974
31 The Man Who Would Be King Daniel Dravot 1975
32 The Dream Factory (himself) 1975
33 The Terrorists Nils Tahlvik 1975
34 The Wind and the Lion Mulay el-Raisuli 1975
35 Robin and Marian Robin Hood 1976
36 The Next Man Khalil Abdul-Muhsen 1976
37 A Bridge Too Far Major General Urquhart 1977
38 Cuba Major Robert Dapes 1979
39 The First Great Train Robbery Edward Pierce 1979
40 Meteor Dr. Paul Bradley 1979
41 Time Bandits King Agamemnon 1981
42 Outland O' Niel 1981
43 Wrong Is Right Patrick Hale 1982
44 Sword of the Valiant The Green Knight 1982
45 Gole! Commentator (voice) 1982
46 Five Days One Summer Douglas 1982
47 Never Say Never Again James Bond 1983
48 Highlander Ramirez 1986
49 The name of the Rose William of Baskerville 1986
50 The Untouchables Jim Malone 1987
51 Memories of Me himself 1988
52 The Presidio Lt. Colonel Alan Caldwell 1988
53 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Professor Henry Jones 1989
54 Family Business Jessie 1989
55 The Russia House Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair 1990
56 The Hunt For Red October Marko Ramius 1990
57 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves King Richard 1991
58 Highlander II: The Quickening Jaun Ramirez 1991
59 Medicine Man Dr. Robert Campbell 1992
60 Rising Sun John Connor 1993
61 A Good Man in Africa Dr. Alex Murray 1994
62 Just Cause Paul Armstrong 1995
63 First Knight King Arthur 1995
64 The Rock John Patrick Mason 1996
65 Dragonheart Draco (voice) 1996
66 Playing By Heart Paul 1998
67 The Avengers Sir August de Wynter 1998
68 Entrapment Robert "Mac" MacDougal 1999
Quotations

"[James Bond] has no mother. He has no father. He doesn't come from anywhere and he hasn't been anywhere before he became 007. So he was born- kerplump- thirty-three-years old. So I had to breathe life into an idol. I saw him as a complete sensualist, his senses highly tuned and awake to everything. He liked his wine, his food, his women. He's quite amoral. I particularly liked him because he thrives on conflict. But more than that, I think I gave him a sense of humor."

"People sometimes ask me why I act. Well, it's not just for money. You can make money in football [soccer] too. It's for the fantasy, the way you have to get inside someone else's skin, imagine them, understand them, re-create them."

"I have a great respect for money. I know how hard it is to earn and keep, especially with our diabolical taxes in Britain. I never get over the fact that sometimes I see more money being paid for a meal than my father earned in a week."

"No film you could do, no matter how good it was, could compete with the new James Bond."

"I've always chosen the projects on my own. My wife reads the script, and I've listened to what she has to say. But the final decision, whatever I do, rightly or wrongly, is always mine... I think it's the only way you can do it, personally. Otherwise, I don't think there can be a developed body of work, where you can see where it's going- or where it should have gone."

"My strength as an actor, I think, is that I've stayed close to the core of myself, which has something to do with a voice, a music, a tune that's very much tied up with my background experience."

"There is nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in man"