By Grand Rapids Anonymous GRA: “We must eliminate Bond,” “Goldfinger”—and all of James Bond’s enemies would say in every film. So, what finally did him in? Old age, with contributions from many flings with gorgeous stars, a few too many drinks and the occasional puff on some smokes. A pretty good life.
(ZH) Sir Sean Connery, the celebrated Scottish actor who will forever be associated with James Bond, the MI6 agent also known as “007” whom he portrayed in 7 films, has died. He was 90
With roguish charm and sophistication, Connery inaugurated the long-running James Bond franchise with 1962’s Dr. No and remained the prototypical "Bond" for decades, even - for many - until this very day.
Thomas Sean Connery was born in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh on Aug. 25 1930, the son of a Catholic factory worker and a Protestant housekeeper.
As the BBC reports in a lengthy biography published minutes after news of Connery's death broke, Connery “began life in an Edinburgh tenement and ended it with a villa in Greece, sharing a helicopter pad with the King of the Netherlands.”
“Always hating the Hollywood lifestyle, he preferred to play golf at his homes in Spain, Portugal and the Caribbean, with his second wife, Micheline Roqubrune, an artist he had met in Morocco,” the BBC said.
“He attributed his short fuse and his ‘moodiness’ to his Celtic genes. ‘My view is that to get anywhere in life you have to be anti-social,’' he once said. ‘Otherwise you’ll end up being devoured.”
But despite these quirks, Connery remains an icon of Scottish culture, and the definitive “Bond,” even as Daniel Craig returns for another film, No Time to Die, set to be released next year.
Fun fact: Bond author Ian Fleming initially hated Connery, reviling him as an unrefined and overgrown stuntman, but he he [sic] changed his mind after seeing Dr. No and even inserted Scottish heritage into Bond’s background in subsequent novels.
--GRA
Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 10:14:00 A.M. EDT
Yes, Ian Fleming didn't like Sean Connery as Bond at first. Fleming's original vision of James Bond had an English upper-class veneer. Connery was of the Scottish working class. Fleming was won over when the first films were so successful.
ReplyDeleteSean Connery did have the "dark, rather cruel good looks" and had the air of a man who could pull the trigger when necessary. From Russia With Love (1963) was the best Bond film in my opinion. It had a Hitchcock flavor and the cold war tension of the time.