Interesting facts about Sean Connery

sean connery

Sean Connery is a retired Scottish actor and producer.

His full name is Thomas Sean Connery.

He was born on August 25, 1930, in Fountainbridge, Scotland.

His mother, Euphemia McBain “Effie” (née McLean), was a cleaning woman, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver.

He has a younger brother Neil Connery, born in 1938.

Sean Connery is of Irish and Scottish descent.

Connery started working to help support the family at age nine, delivering milk and assisting a butcher.

He left school at age thirteen.

Connery joined the British Royal Navy in 1946. Though he signed up for a seven-year stint, he was released from service after three years due to stomach ulcers.

sean connery navy

Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British army.

In 1953 Connery won third place in the Mr. Universe competition.

At the age of 23, he had a choice between becoming a professional footballer 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 moves.

sean connery young

No Road Back (1957) was Sean’s first major movie role, and it followed by several Tv-movies such as Anna Christie (1957), Macbeth (1961) and Anna Karenina (1961) and guest appearances on TV-series.

In 1962 Connery was cast in the role of James Bond, Agent 007 of the British Secret Intelligence Service, in the screen adaptation of Ian Fleming’s spy thriller Dr. No.

sean connery james bond

The immense success of the film and its immediate sequels, From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), established the James Bond films as a worldwide phenomenon and Connery as an international celebrity.

After completing the next two James Bond films, Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967), Connery renounced the role of Bond.

Four years later, however, he was persuaded to return to the role for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), which he declared was his last movie as Bond.

After Bond, Connery continued to work regularly—Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Robin and Marian (1976), with Audrey Hepburn, The Great Train Robbery (1979), Time Bandits (1981), Highlander (1986) and The Name of the Rose (1986), winning a British Film Academy award for the latter project, which was based on the book by Umberto Eco.

sean connery the name of the rose

Connery finally won an Academy Award (best supporting actor), for his role as a Chicago cop on the trail of Al Capone in 1987’s The Untouchables, co-starring Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia and Robert De Niro.

In Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Connery played the title figure’s father, and in The Hunt for Red October (1990) he played a defecting Soviet submarine captain.

Connery’s memorable films of the 1990s include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), First Knight (1995), The Rock (1996), Dragonheart (1996), The Avengers (1998),and Entrapment (1999).

In 2000, Connery had a starring role in the drama Finding Forrester, followed by 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a comic book adaptation in which he depicted fictional explorer Allan Quatermain.

the league of extraordinary gentlemen

When Connery received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 June 2006, he confirmed his retirement from acting. But he went on to perform various voice roles.

Sean Connery has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award).

He was knighted by Elizabeth II in July 2000 after receiving Kennedy Center Honors in the US in 1999.

Sean Connery has an estimated net worth of $120 million.

sean-connery-2

Sean married actress Diane Cilento in 1962 and they had a son, Jason Connery, born on January 11, 1963, he followed in his father’s footsteps and also became an actor. The marriage ended in divorce in 1973. In 1975 he married Micheline Roquebrune and they have stayed married, they have no children together. He is also a grandfather. His son, Jason and his ex-wife, actress Mia Sara had a son, Dashiell Quinn Connery, in 1997.

Connery is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), a centre-left political party campaigning for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, and has supported the party financially and through personal appearances.

Connery stated in interviews that he was offered a role in The Lord of the Rings series, declining it due to “not understanding the script.” CNN reported that the actor was offered up to 15% of the
worldwide box office receipts to play Gandalf, which had he accepted, could have earned him as much
as $400 million for the trilogy.

Connery has been called “the rogue with the brogue,” and in 1989, at almost 60 years of age, he was
named People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”

sean connery magazine

He has two small tattoos on his right arm. One says “Scotland forever”, the other “Mum and Dad.” He got them when he enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of 16.

Connery used to live in Marbella, Spain, near a golf course where he played daily when not filming. He
left following disagreements with the local press, and now resides in the Bahamas where he plays golf much less frequently.

His film production company, Fountainbridge Films, is named after the area of Edinburgh where he was born and grew up.

His favourite Bond film is From Russia with Love, as confirmed to ABC News in 2002.

from russia with love

He wore a toupee in all the James Bond movies. He started losing his hair at the age of 17, and began wearing a hairpiece in films in 1958. Privately and in most of his post-Bond movies he did not wear a toupee.

He was almost killed filming the helicopter chase scene in From Russia with Love (1963) when the inexperienced helicopter pilot flew in too close and almost decapitated him.

Connery 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.

He donated his salary from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) to charity.

According to a poll, conducted by British film magazine Empire, he created the worst accent in the
history of cinema in the movie The Untouchables (1987).

Connery attended dancing lessons for 11 years under the tutelage of Swedish dance Yat Malmgren.

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

He attained his full height of 188 centimeters (6 ft 2 in) at the age of 18. He was called as “Big Tam”
in his teens.

He was a very good football player and played for Bunnyrigg Rose in his younger days. Manchester
United’s manger, Matt Busby was impressed by Connery’s play that he offered him a contract for 25
pounds a week.