Biography

The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he proved the doubters wrong, becoming one of the most notable film actors of his generation, with a host of great movies to his name. This arguably culminated in his greatest acclaim in 1988, when Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an Irish cop in The Untouchables (1987), stealing the thunder from the movie's principal star Kevin Costner. Connery was polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure." In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man of the Century."

Thomas "Sean" Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphemia Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also had a brother, Neil Connery, a plasterer in Edinburgh, who was eight years younger. Before going into acting, Sean had many different jobs, such as a milkman, lorry driver, a laborer, artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, coffin polisher and bodybuilder. He also joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged because of medical problems. At the age of 23, he had a choice between becoming a professional soccer player or an actor, and even though he showed much promise in the sport, he chose acting and said it was one of his more intelligent decisions.

No Road Back (1957) was Sean's first major movie role, and it was followed by several made-for-TV movies such as Anna Christie (1957), Macbeth (1961) and Anna Karenina (1961) as well as guest appearances on TV series, and also films such as Hell Drivers (1957), Another Time, Another Place (1958), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) and The Frightened City (1961). In 1962 he appeared in The Longest Day (1962) with a host of other stars.

His big breakthrough came in 1962 when he landed the role of secret agent James Bond in Dr. No (1962). He played James Bond in six more films: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

After and during the success of the Bond films, he maintained a successful career as an actor and has appeared in films, including Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Wind and the Lion (1975), Time Bandits (1981), Highlander (1986), The Name of the Rose (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Rising Sun (1993), The Rock (1996), Finding Forrester (2000) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).

Sean married actress Diane Cilento in 1962 and they had Sean's only child, Jason Connery, born on January 11, 1963. The couple announced their separation in February 1971 and filed for divorce 2½ years later. Sean then dated Jill St. John, Lana Wood, Magda Konopka and Carole Mallory. In 1975 he married Micheline Roquebrune and they stayed married, despite Sean's well-documented love affair with Lynsey de Paul in the late '80s. Sean had three stepchildren through his marriage to Micheline, who was one year his senior. He is also a grandfather. His son, Jason and Jason's ex-wife, actress Mia Sara had a son, Dashiell Connery, in 1997.

Sean Connery died at the age of 90 on October 31, 2020, in Nassau, the Bahamas, where he resided for many years.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: A.G.

Sean started life with few advantages. His father, Joseph, drove a removal van in Edinburgh, home was a tenement in the rough area of Fountainbridge. As a baby his cot was a wardrobe draw, later he and his brother, Neil, 8 years younger had beds in the kitchen and he bathed in a tin tub in front of the fire., At 15 Tommy, as he then was, became a milk roundsman and also delivered evening papers .Big Tam, as they called him, at 17 joined the Royal, Navy as an able seaman on battleships but he was discharged with an ulcer, which ran in the family with both brother Neil and their father having one. Sean became a swimming pool lifeguard, a cement mixer, brick layer, an artists mode, a coffin polisher ,and printer of the Edinburgh Evening News, Body building had been his hobby and in 1953 he went to London on his motor bike to compete in the Mr Universe Contest and won a bronze medal as runner up in his class. While there he met as friend who was in the chorus of the stage musical of South Pacific and who told him that there was a vacancy in the chorus. Sean applied, said that he could sing and got the job, despite never having sung in his life, After 18 months touring in the show he went into rep and in 1956 got a part in the film No Road Back. He was still unknown in 1957 when casting was been done for Requiem For a Heavy Weight. Jack Palance was the original, choice but negotiations failed causing a long search of muscular men before they found Sean. After the screening Sean was inundated with offers and accepted one from a film company but found himself in forgettable non epics including Tarzans Greatest Adventure, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, which took him to Hollywood and On the Fiddle, He was still little known when the first Bond film was set up. Names that had been suggested for the part of 007 included Richard Burton, Peter Finch and James Mason but Ian Fleming preferred an unknown, After a long search Sean Connery was chosen but with many saying he was completely wrong, apart from his creator, Ian Fleming who said that he was exactly how he imagined Bond, Sean's picture was every where and his pay cheques rose to £150,000 a film plus part of the profits. He could afford to turn down high sums for a day's work doing a commercial and bought a big house in London but still preferred a beer to champagne. After a few films Sean came to see Bond as a Franknstein monster and quit the part after You Only Live Twice rejecting high offers of money. He got far more satisfaction from The Hill set in an army detention centre in Africa. Most of his television work was devoted to serious drama and the classics, and he acted on stage at the Oxford Playhouse where he met Diane Cilento who he married in 1962 secretly in Gibraltar

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5