Was Sean Connery the ultimate James Bond? For many the answer is obvious. He is the real one “Bond. James Bond”. Was his 007, the soft-tempered, cold-hearted spy, the first to say the British agent’s most iconic phrase on the big screen.
With his penetrating gaze, the cigarette hanging on his lips and the blue smoke enveloping everything, that scene immortalized Sean Connery in the seventh art and became an instant classic. His successors –Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton o Daniel Craig– have not ceased to be, since then, mere replicas.
“Soy Bond. James Bond”
An apparition that wasted fierceness, elegance and seduction. Three elements that defined the character of the character and that nevertheless clashed a lot with the Connery of that moment. The Irish actor’s big appearance as Agent 007 took place with Agent 007 vs. Doctor No. (1962), but before he landed his role as James Bond, a senior studio executive asked, “How is a Scot who drove trucks as a milk delivery man to play a distinguished and sophisticated Englishman?”
Perhaps Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels, wondered the same thing, who preferred someone with British blood for the character. He would soon discover that 007 is British, but he is also a man of action and Sean Connery carried action in his genes.
Sean Connery
Milkman, coffin polisher, bricklayer …
Thomas Sean Connery was born into a humble family of Edinburgh, Scotland, August 25, 1930. His father’s family had emigrated from Ireland in the 19th century, while his mother’s origins traced back to Gaelic speakers in northern Scotland. The area in which he lived in Edinburgh was Fountainbridge, a fairly decadent neighborhood in which young Connery lived without hot water and shared a bathroom with the neighborhood. At the age of 13, her parents, who couldn’t afford her studies, asked her to help out at home. This is how during his youth, he would perform all kinds of jobs: delivering milk, polishing coffins, driving trucks, or laying bricks. Until finally the Royal Navy, the naval branch of the British Armed Forces.
Sean Connery in the Royal Navy
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Fights and tattoos that marked his skin
There is in Connery’s body a map of physical memories. Tattoos and scars that forged his character. Connery recounted on more than one occasion that in Edinburgh he won the reputation of “tough man” when six gang members tried to steal his coat and he faced them victoriously, as he always would in his role as James Bond. A facet that can collide with one of the two tattoos that he had and in which you could read: “Mom and Dad.” The other made his origins clear and said: “Scotland forever”
Sean Connery
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Her perched nude at the Edinburg College of Art
The considered as the sexiest man of the 20th century he dedicated many hours to taking care of his body and highlighting his muscles, those that made him win the odd fight. He spent his free time training and polishing his body and turned out to be a good posing model for art classes at the Edinburgh College of Art. Artist Richard Demarco, who frequently painted Connery as a student, even said that he was “too beautiful to describe in words, a virtual Adonis”.
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Mancherter United player, in another life
Perhaps if theater and film had never crossed his path, Sean would have also been known as a Manchester United player. A football fan, the Irish actor became good enough to catch the attention of the then coach Matt Busby who, in 1953, offered him a contract to enter the quarry of the Manchester United. But by then acting, with which he had already made contact in a local theater, had already caught his attention and he decided to pursue his luck on stage.
Sean Connery passed away on October 31, 2020
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His musical side
It was precisely one year after rejecting the football offer that he participated in the casting for the choir of a production of the musical South Pacific. A few months later, he was already playing the role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had made famous on Broadway. Connery began to soak up authors like Ibsen, Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw, and decided to start giving elocution lessons.
Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in Dr. No (1962)
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Before Bond, he was a TV gangster
His first screen appearances were as an extra in the film Lilacs in the Spring (“The Reconciliation”), released in 1954. He also played minor roles on television, including a gangster in an episode of the police drama Dixon of Dock Green, from BBC.
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His scandalous first marriage
Sean Connery’s first wife was Diane Cilento. They gave the “yes, I do” in 1962, coinciding with the premiere of his first film as James Bond. A marriage that lasted 11 years and from which his son was born Jason, but that was always loaded with polemics and public discussions. She doesn’t trust her husband, she always believed he was being unfaithful to her. And for his part, Sean lived focused on fame, that fame that he hated and that caused him a lot of torment because his fans sneaked into his house, and even robbed him. The marriage discussions were daily and they were heard from outside the home.
Connery with his first wife, Diane Cilento
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His name is Bond, James Bond …
With Bond he achieved the impossible, immortalize himself in a character and not be pigeonholed for it. Few have achieved such a thing. Producers previously considered actors like Richard Burton, Cary Grant and Rex Harrison. But finally, the director Terence Young he took Connery under his wing and decided to turn him into a real 007 agent. They say he took him to fancy restaurants and casinos; teaching him to behave like James Bond would, all with the aim of allowing this slightly rude Scotsman to manage to pass himself off as an affable and sophisticated secret agent, with the personal toughness and wit of Connery himself.
Sean Connery como James Bond
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Sean Connery James Bond Tribute Series
- Dr. No (1962) – February 1
- From Russia with Love (“From Russia with love”) (1963) – February 8
- Goldfinger (1964) – February 15
- Never Say Never Again (“Never say never again”) (1983) – February 22
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