THE TRIBUNE
Monday, November 2, 2020, PAGE 1
Sir Sean Connery The Last Great Matinée Idol Christopher Ondaatje marvels at the distinguished acting career of the awardwinning Scottish actor who immortalised the role of James Bond in spy movies. This article was first published in Weekend in November 2017
LONG before James Bond, and long before Sir Sean Connery, there was a tiny baby “Tommy” Connery born to Joe Connery, a truck driver, and Euphemia, a laundress, on 25 August 1930 in Fountainbridge, Scotland. The Connerys were really poor, and they lived in a neighbourhood where the stench from the local rubber mill and brewery was known as “the street of a thousand smells”. Their home was a two-room flat where the baby slept in a cupboard drawer because they didn’t have the money to buy a crib. Joe Connery brought home only a few shillings a week and those were often spent on whisky and gambling. Tommy grew up on the streets of Fountainbridge where the local gangs called him “Big Tam” because of his size and his eventual ability to dominate his playmates. He went to the local Tollcross elementary school and was clever and quick, grasping the fundamentals of mathematics, reading avidly and dreaming up fantastic stories of Martians and madmen. Even as a young boy he loved going to films and often skipped school to go to Blue Halls, the local movie house, to watch the pictures. When Tommy was eight years old his brother Neil was born, and he delighted in the role of big brother. The boys were inseparable and they fished in the local canal using their mother’s stockings for fishing line. Together the brothers often skipped school and mixed with some rough boys from the wrong side of the tracks. Tommy Connery left school when he was 13 years old to work for the local dairy, St Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society, as a milkman. It was his first job. He grew quickly and was 6ft 2in by the time he was 18. His full name was Thomas Sean Connery and, apart from being called Tommy, he was also called Sean long before he was an actor. When he was young, he had an Irish friend named Séamus and those who knew them both had decided to call Connery by his middle name whenever both were present. The name stuck. Three years later, he joined the Royal Navy, and received two tattoos on his arm. He still has them today: “MUM AND DAD” and “SCOTLAND FOREVER”. Although he signed on for seven years he was released after three because of a duodenal ulcer. He returned to his job for St Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society, then got work as a lorry driver, a lifeguard, a labourer, an artist’s model (in the Edinburgh College of Art), and a coffin polisher. He saved money to become a member of the Dunedin Weightlifting Club – “not so much to be
fit, but to look good for the girls”. From 1951, he trained seiously with a gym instructor from the British Army. His gym mates nominated him for the Mr Universe contest. In 1953, he travelled nine hours to get to London where the competitions were being held. He introduced himself as “Mr Scotland”, and was chosen third in the tall men’s division and given a medal. Connery was a keen footballer and played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days, where he was offered a trial with East Fife. In a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, Manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting, Busby offered Connery a contract worth £25 a week and he was tempted to accept. “I realised that a topclass 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.” While in SEAN Connery in roles, London clockwise from top left, as at the Mr James Bond; in Thunderball, shot in the Bahamas; Universe with Shirley Eaton in contest, Goldfinger; being given and after a Japanese bath in You receivlisted Only Live Twice; and in his ing his as a Oscar-winning role in The medal, a chorus Untouchables. local castmember ing director in the liked the look 1953 South of the tall ScotPacific protish kid and asked gramme. By him to join the chorus the time the production of South Pacific – a new reached Edinburgh, he musical by Rodgers and had been given the part of Hammerstein playing on Marine Corporal Hamilton Drury Lane in London’s Steeves and was undertheatre district. studying two of the juvenile “I didn’t have a voice, leads. His salary was raised couldn’t dance. But I could from £12 to £14-10s a week. look good standing there.” The following year, One rehearsal was all it returning to Edinburgh, took for Connery to decide Connery was promoted to to gamble everything on the featured role of Lieumaking acting his full-time tenant Buzz Adams. In career. It was then that he Edinburgh, Connery was chose the stage name Sean targeted by the notorious Connery. Valdor gang, one of the “It seemed to go more most ruthless in the city. He with my image than Tom or was followed by six gang Tommy.” members to a 15ft high Sean Connery was thus balcony at the Palais de
Danse. There, Connery launched an attack singlehandedly against the gang members, grabbing one by the throat and another by the biceps and cracking their heads together. From then on, he was treated with great respect by the gang and gained a reputation as a tough character. Connery also liked the reputation of being a rugged ladies man, but developed a serious interest in the theatre through the American actor Robert Henderson who lent him copies of the Henrik Ibsen works Hedda Gabler, The Wild Drunk, and When We Dead Awaken, and gave him the works of Marcel Proust, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce and William Shakespeare to digest. In addition, Henderson urged him to take elocution lessons and got him parts at
the Maida Vale Theatre in London. He began pursuing a career in film only after he was cast as an extra in the Herbert Wilcox 1954 musical Lilacs in the Spring with Anna Neagle. He secured several bit parts as an extra but was constantly struggling to make ends meet. He was reduced to being a part-time babysitter for journalist Peter Noble and his actress wife Mary Noble. While there he met Shelley Winters, who later said that Connery was one of the most charming Scotsmen she had ever met. She spent many evenings drinking beer with him. At about this time, Connery’s American actor friend Robert Henderson got him a job for £6 a week at the Q Theatre Production of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. This role was followed by a number of minor stage parts until Canadian director Alvin Rakoff gave him multiple roles in The Condemned shot on location in Dover, Kent. In 1956, he appeared in the theatrical production of Epitaph, and played a minor role as a hoodlum in the Ladies of the Manor episode of the BBC TV series Dixon of Dock Green. He also had small TV parts in Sailor of Fortune and The Jack Benny Programme. Things turned around somewhat in 1957. He hired Richard Hatton as his agent - who got him the role of Spike, a minor
PAGE 2, Monday, November 2, 2020 gangster in Montgomery College, Cambridge. He Tully’s No Road Back. was commissioned in the Then Rakoff gave him his Irish Guards, and was a first chance of a leading role tank commander during as Mountain McLintock World War II, particiin the BBC TV’s Requiem pating in Arnhem in the for a Heavyweight. He Netherlands. also played a rogue lorry Young was born in 1915 driver in Cy Endfield’s Hell so in 1962, when Dr No Drivers (1957) and in the was being made, he was 47 Terence Young MGM pic- years old and 15 years older ture Action of the Tiger. than Sean Connery. His Terence Young was to have upbringing too was very difa great influence on Con- ferent to Connery’s. Young nery’s movie career a few knew what he was doing years later when he was and knew exactly what sort given the James Bond part of a person Fleming had in 1962. He also got another in mind to play the part of minor role in Gerald Thom- James Bond. Instead, he as’s Time Lock (1957). was given the job of directHe was beginning to be ing a tall good-looking Scot noticed. who had none of the finer 1957 was also the year mannerisms expected of that he met the Australian him, but who exuded sexual actress Diane Cilento while charisma. Young made filming a show for Britain’s a crucial contribution to ATV Playhouse. They were Dr No, not least with the immediately attracted to performance of Connery, each other although Cilento whose portrayal of Bond was married at the time. owes much to Young’s tuteConnery would eventu- lage. Young helped polish ally marry her in 1962, and the actor while using his they had a son, Jason, who physical grace and presence later followed his father for the action scenes. into an acting career. But Lois Maxwell, who the marriage did not last. played the part of Miss They were divorced in 1973 Moneypenny, related that and Cilento returned to “Terence (Young) took Queensland, Australia. Sean under his wing. He Connery was given a took him to dinner, showed major role in the melo- him how to walk, how to drama Another Time, talk, even how to eat.” The Another Place (1958) as tutoring was successful. a British reporter named Young gave Connery his Mark Trevor caught in a polish and thereafter the love affair opposite Lana actor became one of the Turner and Barry Sullivan. greatest male sex symbols During the filming, Lana of film there has ever been Turner’s possessive gang- – receiving thousands of ster boyfriend, Johnny fan letters a week. Connery Stompanato, believing she remembered what Young was having an affair with had taught him and with Connery, stormed onto each new part his charm the set and pointed a gun and confidence grew. at Connery, only to have Connery played the part Connery disarm him and of the sly, sexy and confiknock him flat on his back. dent British agent who had Stompanato was banned questionable scruples with from the set, but Connery increasing conviction. He had to lie low for a while became the embodiment after receiving threats from of the 007 spy and was an men linked to immediate superStompanato’s boss ‘I didn’t star. He got other Mickey Cohen. parts have a voice, leading In 1960, Contoo. After and nery’s career in couldn’t during the sucmovies began dance. But cess of the Bond to take off. He films he appeared I could landed a leading in Alfred Hitchpart in Robert look good cock’s Marnie Stevenson’s Walt standing (1964), The Hill Disney Produc(1965), Murder there.’ tions film Darby on the Orient O’Gill and the Express (1974), Little People – a film The Man Who Would be about a wily Irishman and King (1975), The Wind his battle of wits with lep- and the Lion (1975), Time rechauns. He also had Bandits (1981), Highlander prominent roles in Rudolph (1986), The Name of the Cartier’s productions of Rose (1986), The UntouchAdventure Story and Anna ables (1987) (which earned Karenina for BBC Tel- him an Oscar for best supevision, co-starring with porting role), Indiana Claire Bloom. In 1962, he Jones and the Last Crusade appeared in The Longest (1989), The Hunt for Red Day with a host of other October (1990), Rising Sun stars – and it was the year (1993), The Rock (1996), when Connery’s real break- Finding Forrester (2000), through came. Producers and The League of ExtraorHarry Saltzman and Albert dinary Gentlemen (2003). Broccoli cast him as the Sean Connery married lead in a spy movie based the French-Moroccan artist on one of a series of Ian Micheline Roquebrune in Fleming’s novels. James 1975. They had met at a golf Bond was born. tournament in Morocco, Connery was reluctant to a sport they both loved. commit to a film series but By this time, he had made was advised that if the films six Bond pictures and, succeeded, his career would although Bond made him greatly benefit. Connery’s a star, he eventually grew selection for the role of tired of the role and the James Bond owed a lot to pressure the franchise put Dana Broccoli, the wife of on him. producer Albert Broccoli, Michael Caine, his friend who convinced her hus- and co-star in The Man band that Connery was the Who Would be King said: right man. Ian Fleming too “If you were his friend in was against Connery’s cast- those early days, you didn’t ing, saying “He’s not what I raise the subject of Bond. envisioned of James Bond’s He was, and is, a much looks. I’m looking for a better actor than just playCommander Bond – not ing James Bond.” an overgrown stunt man.” He began to shrink from He criticised Sean Connery the spotlight, moving his as being unrefined. How- new wife and her three chilever, Blanche Blackwell, dren to mansions first in one of Fleming’s girlfriends, England, and then to Martold him that Connery had bella, Spain. It would be the right sexual charisma. more than a decade before Fleming changed his mind he reluctantly agreed to after the first film premiere. reprise his Bond role for Connery played secret the seventh and last time in agent 007 in the first five the 1983 Never Say Never Bond films: Dr No (1962), Again – a title suggested From Russia with Love by his wife Micheline. For (1963), Goldfinger (1964), this he was paid a salary of Thunderball (1965), and several million dollars – a You Only Live Twice (1967) far cry from the reported – then appeared again in $16,000 he earned for Dr Diamonds Are Forever No. (1971) and Never Say Never In Marbella, he played Again (1983). All seven golf daily when not filming. films were enormously suc- For 29 years, (from 1979) cessful and Connery was he owned the Domaine selected as the third great- de Terre Blanche in the est hero in cinema history South of France, where he by the American Film planned to build his dream Institute. golf course on the 266 acres Connery’s portrayal of of land, but the dream was James Bond owes a great not to be realised until deal to the British direc- he sold the property to tor Terence Young who German billionaire Dietdirected the first two of the mar Hopp in 1999. By then James Bond films Dr No the Connerys, fed up with (1962) and From Russia disagreements with the with Love (1963), and then local press, had moved to Thunderball in 1965. Young Nassau in The Bahamas, was public school educated, becoming members of and had read Oriental the exclusive Lyford Cay History at St Catherine’s Club in 1982 and buying
THE TRIBUNE a charming but not ostentatious house on the golf course where they now live. “I have retired for good. It’s been a bit rough since Christmas but I’m perfectly OK and I feel well. In fact, I’m working on a history book.” “I get asked the question so often, I thought it best to make an announcement. I thought long and hard about it and if anything could have pulled me out of retirement it would have been an Indiana Jones film. I love working with Steven Spielberg and George (Lucas), and it goes without saying that it is an honour to have Harrison (Ford) as my son. But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun.” Connery continued to make films until he retired officially in March 2006. •••
SEAN Connery with his wife Micheline Roquebrune, who he married in 1975.
ON April 6, 2002, Scottish actor Sean Connery leads a procession up New York’s Sixth Avenue as part of a bagpipe band of about 10,000, billed as the world’s largest pipe and drum parade. The parade was to benefit cancer victims through Marie Curie Cancer Care, and the New York-based Gilda’s Club Worldwide, a support network named after the late actress Gilda Radner.
SEAN Connery arrived in The Bahamas in 1965 to film Ian Fleming’s novel Thunderball.
Sean Connery’s incredible film career has been quite remarkable because of its variety. He has been given many honours. In 1998, he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award; and in 2000 he received a Crystal Globe for outstanding contribution to world cinema. In 1989, when he was almost 60 years old, he was named People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive”, and in 1999 received a Kennedy Centre Honour for Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2000 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in an hour long investiture at Edinburgh’s Holyrood Palace, despite his active national support for the separatist Scottish National Party; and in 2006 he received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Looking back on Sean Connery’s remarkable film career, there are some interesting and sometimes bizarre comments that experts have made about his achievements. Goldfinger (1964) is arguably the most entertaining of Connery’s seven Bond films where 007 investigates a gold magnate’s smuggling and uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox Gold Reserve. He has almost been killed twice while making Bond films: In 1963, while filming the helicopter chase in From Russia With Love, he was almost decapitated when the inexperienced helicopter pilot flew too close to him. Then during the filming of Thunderball in The Bahamas in 1965, in the sequence with the sharks in Emilio Largo’s pool, Connery insisted that a plexiglass partition be made inside the pool. But this was not a fixed structure and one of the sharks managed to pass through it, almost getting to Connery who climbed hurriedly from the pool. This near disaster was captured on the final film sequence. During the filming of Marnie (1964) Alfred Hitchcock had cast “the sexiest man alive” to play opposite Tippi Hedren – supposed to play a frigid woman thief in the film. She asked Hitchcock how she could possibly play such a role, when the iciest of women would melt in Connery’s presence. Hitchcock told her “It’s called acting, my dear.” He then ordered Connery not to touch her. The Hill, made in 1965, is one of Connery’s best films. In a North African military prison during World War II, five new prisoners struggle to survive in the face of brutal punishment and sadistic guards. Connery’s performance is magnificent. Under John Huston’s direction of Rudyard Kipling’s novella The Man Who Would be King (1975), both Connery and Michael Caine give superb performances as a pair of British colonialists who resign from the army planning to make the faraway land of Kafiristan their own kingdom where no white man has set foot since Alexander the Great. Marvellous entertainment. The following year, Connery played an ageing Robin Hood opposite Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian. It is a touching film where Connery and Hepburn (after her eight-year absence from films) make the film work because of the chemistry between them. They seem to have arrived at a
THE TRIBUNE
Monday, Friday,November October 30, 2, 2020, PAGE 3
SEAN Connery pictured in his Navy days, above, and as a young bodybuilder.
IN 1988, Sean Connery holds up his best supporting actor Oscar for “The Untouchables” at the 60th annual Academy Awards. Photo: Lennox McLendon/AP tacit understanding about their characters and they marvellously project two complex and tender people who have acquired grace and wisdom after a 20-year separation. Most of Connery’s successes in the next decade were as part of ensemble casts in films like Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and A Bridge Too Far (1977) starring Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Olivier. Connery won a BAFTA award for his performance in The Name of the Rose in 1986, and in Highlander he showed his ability to play older mentors to younger leads. The Untouchables in 1987 earned Connery an Oscar for best supporting actor by playing a grizzled but honourable cop; and his subsequent box-office hits included Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and The Russia House (1990). The Rock (1996) was one of Connery’s favourite and highest paid films – a prison action-adventure. He then played a cat burglar in the love story/ thriller Entrapment (1999) which co-starred Catherine Zeta-Jones despite a 40-year difference between their ages, and a starring role in Gus Van Sant’s Finding Forrester (2000) where a young prodigy finds a mentor – a reclusive author – played by Connery. It was another of his great sensitive performances. “More than anything else, I’d like to be an old man with a good face, like Alfred Hitchcock or Pablo Picasso.” Rob Brown who played the part of the Bronx kid who stumbles across a reclusive old novelist – and earns himself a surly mentor in the process, said “People make him out to seem like a grumpy old man, but he’s not really like that at all”, said Brown about Finding Forrester. “He’s just a really cool guy. Our apartments
were on the same floor, and he sat me down one weekend and told me about the business and how everything works, the reason being, he said, there was nobody who told him when he was really coming up. He really mentored me.” Brown still remembers all of Connery’s advice – “A lot of it wasn’t about film work per se, it was about life ... In terms of any actor I’ve worked with, I learned the most from him.” Harrison Ford too said of Connery playing his father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “He just brings such manliness and a gravitas, as well as a playful aspect to him... Sean has a very keen interest and considerable knowledge of history.” So Connery played the part of Harrison Ford’s father as an historian rather than an archaeologist like his son. It was such an intelligent inspiration and not everyone could have done it. “What makes actors interesting is their capacity to take what is particular about themselves and somehow weave that into the characters they play,” Ford added. It seems that all his acting life Connery has been able to do this. It is what has made him the actor and man that he is. Nicholas Cage, who acted in another of Connery’s favourite films “The Rock” has said: “It was quite simply one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had with a co-star. That was really my first experience of an actionadventure film, and Sean explained how to be aware and how to be safe, and at the same time to take the chances that were necessary... He taught me many things... I have always modelled my approach and my career after him. He was always willing to try different genres and characters while maintaining his viable presence.” Sean Connery will be remembered by all who
ON April 11, 1971, Sean Connery relaxes at the River Room of the Savoy Hotel in London.
Photo: Bob Dear/AP
have ever met him as a giant of a man who has overcome incredible odds to reach the pinnacle of his profession through hard work, intelligence, and courage. He bought his home in Lyford Cay in the 1980s where he lived happily with his wife Micheline Roquebrune. He remained fiercely dedicated to an independent Scotland and fiercely loyal to his family and friends. There have not ever been any men like him before, and it is unlikely there will ever be any like him again. Sir Sean Connery was truly the last great matinée idol. He was a great man - and did it all himself. Christopher Ondaatje is the author of The Last Colonial. The author acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia, Peter Debruge, Variety, 2006: and from many interviews given by Sean Connery.
SIR Sean Connery and Sir Stirling Moss chat during Speed Week in The Bahamas in 2011. Photo: Stephen Hunt/Tribune Staff
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