95 Facts About Sean Connery

Sean Connery was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.

Sean Connery began acting in smaller theatre and television productions until his break-out role as Bond.

Sean Connery officially retired from acting in 2006, although he briefly returned for voice-over roles in 2012.

Sean Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.

Thomas Sean Connery was born at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1930; he was named after his paternal grandfather.

Sean Connery was brought up at No 176 Fountainbridge, a block which has since been demolished.

Sean Connery's mother, Euphemia McBain "Effie" McLean, was a cleaning woman.

Sean Connery's father, Joseph Sean Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver.

Two of his paternal great-grandparents emigrated to Scotland from Wexford, Ireland in the mid-19th century, with his great-grandfather James Sean Connery being an Irish Traveller.

Sean Connery's father was a Roman Catholic, and his mother was a Protestant.

Sean Connery had a younger brother Neil and was generally referred to in his youth as "Tommy".

Sean Connery was known during his teen years as "Big Tam", and he said that he lost his virginity to an adult woman in an ATS uniform at the age of 14.

Sean Connery had an Irish childhood friend named Seamus; when the two were together, those who knew them both called Connery by his middle name Sean, emphasising the alliteration of the two names.

In 1946, at the age of 16, Sean Connery joined the Royal Navy, during which time he acquired two tattoos.

Sean Connery trained in Portsmouth at the naval gunnery school and in an anti-aircraft crew.

Sean Connery was later assigned as an Able Seaman on HMS Formidable.

Sean Connery was discharged from the navy at the age of 19 on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer, a condition that affected most of the males in previous generations of his family.

Artist Richard Demarco, at the time a student who painted several early pictures of Sean Connery, described him as "very straight, slightly shy, too, too beautiful for words, a virtual Adonis".

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

Sean Connery said he was deterred from bodybuilding when he found that Americans frequently beat him in competitions because of sheer muscle size and, unlike Sean Connery, refused to participate in athletic activity which could make them lose muscle mass.

Sean Connery was a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days.

The production returned the following year, out of popular demand, and Sean Connery was promoted to the featured role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had portrayed in the West End.

Sean Connery was first approached by them in a billiard hall where he prevented them from stealing his jacket and was later followed by six gang members to a 15-foot-high balcony at the Palais de Danse.

Sean Connery first met Michael Caine at a party during the production of South Pacific in 1954, and the two later became close friends.

Sean Connery had already begun a film career, having been an extra in Herbert Wilcox's 1954 musical Lilacs in the Spring alongside Errol Flynn and Anna Neagle.

Sean Connery met Hollywood actress Shelley Winters one night at Noble's house, who described Connery as "one of the tallest and most charming and masculine Scotsmen" she had ever seen, and later spent many evenings with the Connery brothers drinking beer.

Around this time, Sean Connery was residing at TV presenter Llew Gardner's house.

In 1956, Sean Connery appeared in the theatrical production of Epitaph, and played a minor role as a hoodlum in the "Ladies of the Manor" episode of the BBC Television police series Dixon of Dock Green.

In early 1957, Sean Connery hired agent Richard Hatton, who got him his first film role, as Spike, a minor gangster with a speech impediment in Montgomery Tully's No Road Back, alongside Skip Homeier, Paul Carpenter, Patricia Dainton, and Norman Wooland.

Sean Connery then played a rogue lorry driver, Johnny Yates, in Cy Endfield's Hell Drivers alongside Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, and Patrick McGoohan.

Later in 1957, Sean Connery appeared in Terence Young's poorly received MGM action picture Action of the Tiger, opposite Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom, and Gustavo Rojo; the film was shot on location in southern Spain.

Sean Connery had a minor role in Gerald Thomas's thriller Time Lock as a welder, appearing alongside Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty McDowall, and Vincent Winter; this commenced filming on 1 December 1956 at Beaconsfield Studios.

Sean Connery had a major role in the melodrama Another Time, Another Place as a British reporter named Mark Trevor, caught in a love affair opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan.

Sean Connery later recounted that he had to lay low for a while after receiving threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss, Mickey Cohen.

In 1959, Sean Connery landed a leading role in director Robert Stevenson's Walt Disney Productions film Darby O'Gill and the Little People, alongside Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Jimmy O'Dea.

Sean Connery had prominent television roles in Rudolph Cartier's 1961 productions of Adventure Story and Anna Karenina for BBC Television, co-starring with Claire Bloom in the latter.

Sean Connery's breakthrough came in the role of British secret agent James Bond.

Sean Connery was reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the films succeeded, his career would greatly benefit.

Between 1962 and 1967, Sean Connery played 007 in Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice, the first five Bond films produced by Eon Productions.

Sean Connery made his final appearance as Bond in Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of Thunderball produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm.

James Bond, as portrayed by Sean Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.

James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, originally doubted Sean Connery's casting, saying, "He's not what I envisioned of James Bond looks," and "I'm looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man", adding that Sean Connery was unrefined.

Sean Connery was so impressed, he wrote Connery's heritage into the character.

Sean Connery carried it off with icily disdainful style, in full evening dress with a cigarette hanging from his lips.

Sean Connery had been concerned about this threat when he read the script.

Sean Connery insisted that Ken Adam build a special Plexiglas partition inside the pool, but this was not a fixed structure, and one of the sharks managed to pass through it.

Sean Connery was, and is, a much better actor than just playing James Bond, but he became synonymous with Bond.

Sean Connery had said he wanted to work with Hitchcock, which Eon arranged through their contacts.

Sean Connery shocked many people at the time by asking to see a script, something he did because he was worried about being typecast as a spy and he did not want to do a variation of North by Northwest or Notorious.

When told by Hitchcock's agent that Cary Grant had not asked to see even one of Hitchcock's scripts, Sean Connery replied: "I'm not Cary Grant".

Hitchcock and Sean Connery got on well during filming, and Sean Connery said he was happy with the film "with certain reservations".

The first of five films he made with Lumet, Sean Connery considered him to be one of his favourite directors.

Sean Connery appeared in John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King opposite Michael Caine.

In 1981, Sean Connery appeared in the film Time Bandits as Agamemnon.

When shown the script, Sean Connery was happy to play the supporting role.

Sean Connery agreed to reprise Bond as an ageing agent 007 in Never Say Never Again, released in October 1983.

In 1987, Sean Connery starred in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, where he played a hard-nosed Irish-American cop alongside Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness.

Sean Connery starred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, playing Henry Jones Sr.

Sean Connery appeared in a brief cameo as King Richard the Lionheart at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

In 1998, Sean Connery received the BAFTA Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Sean Connery received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.

Sean Connery sensed during shooting that the production was "going off the rails", and announced that the director, Stephen Norrington should be "locked up for insanity".

Sean Connery spent considerable effort in trying to salvage the film through the editing process, ultimately deciding to retire from acting rather than go through such stress ever again.

Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films, saying he did not understand the script.

Sean Connery turned down the opportunity to appear as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series and the Architect in The Matrix trilogy.

Sean Connery said he was happy the producers, Electronic Arts, had approached him to voice Bond.

When Sean Connery received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 June 2006, he confirmed his retirement from acting.

In 2010, a bronze bust sculpture of Sean Connery was placed in Tallinn, Estonia, outside The Scottish Club, whose membership includes Estonian Scotophiles and a handful of expatriate Scots.

In 2012, Sean Connery briefly came out of retirement to voice the title character in the Scottish animated film Sir Billi.

Sean Connery served as executive producer for an expanded 80-minute version.

Sean Connery then dated Julie Hamilton, daughter of documentary filmmaker and feminist Jill Craigie.

Sean Connery shared a mutual attraction with jazz singer Maxine Daniels, whom he met whilst working in theatre.

Sean Connery made a pass at her, but she told him she was already happily married with a daughter.

Sean Connery was married to actress Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1974, though they separated in 1971.

Sean Connery was separated in the early 1970s when he dated Dyan Cannon, Jill St John, Lana Wood, Carole Mallory, and Magda Konopka.

Sean Connery cancelled an appearance at the Scottish Parliament in 2006 because of controversy over his alleged support of abuse of women.

Sean Connery denied claims he told Playboy magazine in 1965, "I don't think there is anything particularly wrong in hitting a woman, though I don't recommend you do it in the same way you hit a man".

Sean Connery was married to French-Moroccan painter Micheline Roquebrune was born on 4 April 1929 and from 1975 until his death.

The marriage survived a well-documented affair Sean Connery had in the late 1980s with the singer and songwriter Lynsey de Paul, which she later regretted due to his views concerning domestic violence.

Sean Connery owned the Domaine de Terre Blanche in the South of France from 1979.

Sean Connery sold it to German billionaire Dietmar Hopp in 1999.

Sean Connery was awarded an honorary rank of Shodan in Kyokushin karate.

Sean Connery relocated to the Bahamas in the 1990s; he owned a mansion in Lyford Cay on New Providence.

Sean Connery was knighted by the Queen at an investiture ceremony at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh on 5 July 2000.

Sean Connery had been nominated for a knighthood in 1997 and 1998, but these nominations were reportedly vetoed by Donald Dewar owing to Connery's political views.

Sean Connery's neighbour was King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, with whom he shared a helicopter platform.

Later in life, Sean Connery switched his loyalty to Celtic's bitter rival, Rangers FC, after he became close friends with the team's chairman, David Murray.

Sean Connery was a keen golfer, introduced to the game by his friend Iain Stewart.

The golf scene saw him wear a Slazenger v-neck sweater, a brand which Sean Connery became associated with while playing golf in his free time, with a light grey marl being a favoured colour.

Sean Connery supported the party both financially and through personal appearances.

Sean Connery was cleared by officials, but his wife and 16 others were charged with attempting to defraud the Spanish treasury.

Sean Connery died in his sleep on 31 October 2020, aged 90, at his home in the Lyford Cay community of Nassau in the Bahamas.

Sean Connery's death was announced by his family and Eon Productions; although they did not disclose the cause of death, his son Jason said he had been unwell for some time.

Sean Connery's remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered in Scotland at undisclosed locations in 2022.

Sean Connery was voted by People magazine as the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century" in 1999.