imdb.com

Sean Connery - Biography - IMDb

Overview

  • Born
  • Died
  • Birth name
  • Nicknames
    • Big Tam
    • Tommy
  • Height

Biography

    • 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

Family

  • Spouses

      Diane Cilento(November 29, 1962 - August 2, 1974) (divorced, 1 child)

  • Children
  • Parents

      Euphemia McBain (McLean)

      Joseph Connery

  • Relatives

Trademarks

  • Powerful deep voice with Scottish accent

  • Best known for playing James Bond

  • Frequently played tough, cunning heroes

  • In the latter half of his career, often played mentors

  • Grey beard or moustache (in later years)

Trivia

  • Of the six actors who have played James Bond, he is the only one who, like Bond, served in the Royal Navy.

  • Terry Gilliam did not intend to cast him as King Agamemnon in Time Bandits (1981), he simply wrote in the screenplay that when Agamemnon took off his helmet he looked "exactly like Sean Connery." To Gilliam's surprise, the script found its way into Connery's hands and Connery subsequently expressed interest in doing the film.

  • He was once stopped for speeding by an officer named Sergeant James Bond.

  • He was paid a huge sum to return as James Bond for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), setting a record. It was donated to his Scottish charity.

  • He said in an interview that during the filming of Never Say Never Again (1983), he was taking martial arts lessons and in the process angered the instructor who in turn broke his wrist. Connery stayed with the wrist broken for a number of years thinking it was only a minor pain... the instructor was Steven Seagal.

Quotes

  • I was called Sean long before I was an actor, I had an Irish buddy when I was 12 named Seamus -- pronounced Shay-mus. So they nicknamed us Seamus and Shawn and it stuck.

  • I never disliked Bond, as some have thought. Creating a character like that does take a certain craft. It's simply natural to seek other roles.

  • More than anything else, I'd like to be an old man with a good face, like Alfred Hitchcock or Pablo Picasso. They know that life is not just a popularity contest.

  • I've honestly not been too aware of my age until I went to the doctor for a full check-up. He said I had the heart of a young man - "but you're not young, you're 40".

Salaries

Edit page

More from this person