Here’s a look at the life of actor and philanthropist Sean Connery. He was perhaps best known for playing Agent 007, James Bond, in seven films.
Personal
Birth date: August 25, 1930
Death date: October 31, 2020
Birth place: Edinburgh, Scotland
Birth name: Thomas Sean Connery
Father: Joseph Connery, a factory hand and truck-driver
Mother: Euphemia (McLean) Connery, a laundress
Marriages: Micheline Roquebrune (May 6, 1975-present), Diane Cilento (November 30, 1962-October 4, 1973, divorced)
Children: with Diane Cilento: Jason (January 11, 1963)
Education: Dropped out of school at age 13
Military service: Royal Navy, 1947-1950
Other Facts
Nominated for one Academy Award and won one.
Nominated for one Tony Award and won one.
Both Connery and Roger Moore played Bond in seven films.
Six actors have played the character, a British super-spy who likes his martinis “shaken, not stirred.”
Fifty years of James Bond – A replica of the character Jill Masterson, suffocated when she was painted with gold in “Goldfinger,” is a centerpiece of the newly-opened James Bond exhibition in London.
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Fifty years of James Bond – “Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style” features 400 Bond archive items together for the first time, and features a model of the Ice Palace from “Die Another Day.”
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Fifty years of James Bond – A Sean Connery waxwork and the famous Aston Martin DB5 greets fans outside the exhibition.
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Fifty years of James Bond – The golden gun, used by Bond Villian Francisco Scaramanga in “The Man With The Golden Gun,” is located, naturally, in the Gold Room, which celebrates the gold anniversary of Bond on film.
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Fifty years of James Bond – The exhibition, which includes a room full of Bond film posters, allows visitors to walk in 007’s footsteps.
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Fifty years of James Bond – A woman poses for pictures next to a “Hasselblad Gun” used in the film “Licenced to Kill.”
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Fifty years of James Bond – The bikini worn by Honey Ryder, the first Bond Girl in “Dr. No,” sits alongside the famously tiny trunks worn by current Bond actor Daniel Craig in 2006’s “Casino Royale.”
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Fifty years of James Bond – Scottish actor Sean Connery played James Bond in the first film “Dr. No” in 1962.
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Fifty years of James Bond – Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress, was the first Bond Girl.
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Fifty years of James Bond – Jinx, played by Halle Berry, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), and Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) meet in the Ice Palace in the 2002 movie “Die Another Day.”
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Fifty years of James Bond – Pussy Galore, played by Honor Blackman, and Sean Connery as Bond, in 1964’s “Goldfinger.”
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Fifty years of James Bond – British actor Roger Moore filming the Bond film “Live and Let Die” in 1973.
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Fifty years of James Bond – Camille Montes, played by Olga Kurylenko, with Daniel Craig as Bond in 2008’s “Quantum of Solace.”
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Timeline
1953 – Connery makes his stage debut in the chorus of the British touring company of the musical “South Pacific.”
1955 – He makes his film debut in an uncredited role in the British movie “Lilacs in the Spring.”
1961 – Producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli is searching for someone to play James Bond in his upcoming film and meets Connery.
1962-1967 – Sean Connery is the first James Bond, Agent 007. He plays the character in five consecutive films in the series: “Dr. No (1962),” “From Russia with Love (1963),” “Goldfinger (1964),” “Thunderball (1965)” and “You Only Live Twice (1967).”
November 1965 – Connery admits in an interview with Playboy that he doesn’t “think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman–although I don’t recommend doing it in the same way that you’d hit a man. An openhanded slap is justified–if all other alternatives fail and there has been plenty of warning.”
1967 – Directs and stars in “The Bowler and The Bunnet,” a documentary about the Scottish shipbuilding industry’s decline.
1971 – Co-founds the Scottish International Education Trust, an organization that provides grants to Scottish students and supports projects that advance Scotland.
1971 – Connery stars as Bond in “Diamonds are Forever.”
1983 – Connery stars in his final Bond movie, “Never Say Never Again.”
1987 – In an interview with Barbara Walters, Connery states, “I wouldn’t change my opinion,” about what he said to Playboy in 1965, and stands by his statement that there is “nothing particularly wrong with hitting a woman.”
April 11, 1988 – Wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in “The Untouchables.”
1989 – 59-year-old Connery is voted People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”
June 7, 1998 – Wins a Tony Award as one of three producers of the Best Play winner, “Art.”
1999 – Connery is a Kennedy Center Honoree.
July 5, 2000 – Is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
2004 – Co-founds, and serves as honorary chairman of the US charity, Friends of Scotland, to promote an interest in Scotland and sustain goodwill between the US and Scotland.
July 2005 – Retires from acting.
June 2006 – Receives the American Film Institute’s 34th Lifetime Achievement Award.
August 2008 – Connery’s book, “Being a Scot,” is published. It is part autobiography and part Scottish history.
2013 – Is involved in efforts to preserve the environmental resources of the Clifton Bay area of the Bahamas from over development, the Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay. He owns a home on New Providence Island which is in Clifton Bay.
March 2014 – In an op-ed in the New Statesman, Connery offers support for a referendum on Scotland’s independence from Britain, “I believe the opportunity of independence is too good to miss.”
October 31, 2020 – The actor’s publicist announces Sean Connery “died peacefully in his sleep”
James Bond through the years 02:51
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