Age, Biography, and Wiki
Sean Connery was born on August 25, 1930, in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, to Euphemia McBain and Joseph Connery. He grew up in a working-class family and initially worked various jobs before entering the entertainment industry. Connery's early life was marked by his physical growth and nickname "Big Tam," which he earned due to his rapid height increase.
| Occupation | Film Producer |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 25 August 1930 |
| Age | 94 Years |
| Birth Place | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Horoscope | Virgo |
| Country | Bahamas |
| Date of death | 31 October, 2020 |
| Died Place | Lyford Cay, The Bahamas |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Connery stood at a height of 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) and was known for his rugged, imposing presence on screen. Although specific weight measurements are not widely documented, his build contributed significantly to his acting persona.
Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British Army. While his official website states he was third in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest, most sources place him in the 1953 competition, either third in the Junior class or failing to place in the Tall Man classification. Connery said he was soon deterred from bodybuilding when he found that Americans frequently beat him in competitions because of sheer muscle size and, unlike Connery, refused to participate in athletic activity which could make them lose muscle mass.
| Height | 6 feet 2 inches |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Sean Connery was married twice. His first marriage was to Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1973, and his second marriage was to Micheline Roquebrune from 1975 until his death in 2020.
Connery was of half-Irish and half-Scottish descent. He was brought up at No. 176 Fountainbridge, a block which has since been demolished. His mother, Euphemia McBain "Effie" McLean, was a cleaning woman. The daughter of Neil McLean and Helen Forbes Ross, she was named after her father's mother, Euphemia McBain, wife of John McLean and daughter of William McBain from Ceres in Fife. Connery's father, Joseph 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 Connery being an Irish Traveller. The remainder of his family was of Scottish descent, and his maternal great-grandparents were native Scottish Gaelic-speakers from Fife and Uig on Skye. His father was a Roman Catholic, and his mother was a Protestant. Connery had a younger brother Neil and was generally referred to in his youth as "Tommy". Although he was small in primary school, he grew rapidly around the age of 12, reaching his full adult height of 6 ft at 18. 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. He had an Irish childhood friend named Séamus; when the two were together, those who knew them both called Connery by his middle name Sean, emphasising the assonance of the two names. Since then Connery preferred to use his middle name.
In 1946, at the age of 16, Connery joined the Royal Navy, during which time he acquired two tattoos. Connery's official website says "unlike many tattoos, his were not frivolous – his tattoos reflect two of his lifelong commitments: his family and Scotland. ... One tattoo is a tribute to his parents and reads 'Mum and Dad', and the other is self-explanatory, 'Scotland Forever'". He trained in Portsmouth at the naval gunnery school and in an anti-aircraft crew. He was later assigned as an Able Seaman on HMS Formidable. 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.
Although Connery had secured several roles as an extra, he was struggling to make ends meet and was forced to accept a part-time job as a babysitter for the journalist Peter Noble and his actress wife Marianne, which earned him 10 shillings a night. He met the 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, Connery was residing at TV presenter Llew Gardner's house. Henderson landed Connery a role in a £6-a-week Q Theatre production of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, during which he met and befriended Ian Bannen. This role was followed by Point of Departure and A Witch in Time at Kew, a role as Pentheus opposite Yvonne Mitchell in The Bacchae at the Oxford Playhouse, and a role opposite Jill Bennett in Eugene O'Neill's play Anna Christie.
Connery had a major role in the melodrama Another Time, Another Place (1958) as a British reporter named Mark Trevor, caught in a love affair opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan. During filming, Turner's possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, who was visiting from Los Angeles, believed she was having an affair with Connery. Connery and Turner had attended West End shows and London restaurants together. Stompanato stormed onto the film set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery disarm him and knock him flat on his back. Stompanato was banned from the set. Two Scotland Yard detectives advised Stompanato to leave and escorted him to the airport, where he boarded a plane back to the United States. Connery later recounted that he had to lie low for a while after receiving threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss, Mickey Cohen.
The choice of Connery for the role of James Bond owed much to Dana Broccoli, wife of the producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, who is reputed to have been instrumental in persuading her husband that Connery was the right man. James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, originally doubted 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 Connery (muscular, 6' 2", and a Scot) was unrefined. Fleming's girlfriend Blanche Blackwell told him Connery had the requisite sexual charisma, and Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No premiere; he was so impressed that he wrote Connery's heritage into the character. In his 1964 novel You Only Live Twice, Fleming wrote that Bond's father was Scottish and from Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.
Connery agreed to reprise Bond in Never Say Never Again, released in October 1983. The title, contributed by his wife, refers to his earlier statement that he would "never again" return to the role. Although the film performed well at the box office, it was plagued with production problems: strife between the director and producer, financial problems, the Fleming estate trustees' attempts to halt the film, and Connery's wrist being broken by the fight choreographer, Steven Seagal. As a result of his negative experiences during filming, Connery became unhappy with the major studios and did not make any films for two years. Following the successful European production The Name of the Rose (1986), for which he won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor, Connery's interest in more commercial material was revived. That same year, a supporting role in Highlander showcased his ability to play older mentors to younger leads, which became a recurring role in many of his later films.
In 1987 Connery starred in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, where he played a hard-nosed Irish-American cop alongside Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness. The film also starred Charles Martin Smith, Patricia Clarkson, Andy Garcia, and Robert De Niro as Al Capone. The film was a critical and box-office success. Many critics praised Connery for his performance, including Roger Ebert, who wrote: "The best performance in the movie is Connery ... [he] brings a human element to his character; he seems to have had an existence apart from the legend of the Untouchables, and when he's onscreen we can believe, briefly, that the Prohibition Era was inhabited by people, not caricatures". For his performance, Connery received a BAFTA nomination and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Connery starred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), playing Henry Jones Sr., the title character's father, and received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Harrison Ford said Connery's contributions at the writing stage enhanced the film. "It was amazing for me in how far he got into the script and went after exploiting opportunities for character. His suggestions to George [Lucas] at the writing stage really gave the character and the picture a lot more complexity and value than it had in the original screenplay". His subsequent box-office hits included The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Russia House (1990), The Rock (1996), and Entrapment (1999). In 1996, he voiced the role of Draco the dragon in the film Dragonheart. He also appeared in a brief cameo as King Richard the Lionheart at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). In 1998, Connery received the BAFTA Fellowship, a lifetime achievement award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Connery was married to the Australian actress Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1974, though they separated in 1971. They had a son, the actor Jason Connery. Connery illustrated the cover of Cilento's 1967 novel: The Manipulator. Connery was separated in the early 1970s when he dated Dyan Cannon, Jill St. John, Lana Wood, Carole Mallory, and Magda Konopka. In her 2006 autobiography, Cilento alleged that he had abused her mentally and physically during their relationship. Connery cancelled an appearance at the Scottish Parliament in 2006 because of controversy over his alleged support of abuse of women. He 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". He was also reported to have stated to Vanity Fair in 1993, "There are women who take it to the wire. That's what they are looking for, the ultimate confrontation. They want a smack". In 2006, Connery told The Times, "I don't believe that any level of abuse of women is ever justified under any circumstances. Full stop".
Growing up, Connery supported the Scottish football club Celtic F.C., having been introduced to the club by his father who was a lifelong fan of the team. Later in life, Connery switched his loyalty to Celtic's bitter rival, Rangers F.C., after he became close friends with the team's chairman, David Murray. He was a keen golfer, introduced to the game by his friend Iain Stewart. The English professional golfer Peter Alliss gave Connery golf lessons before the filming of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, which involved a scene where Connery, as Bond, played golf against the gold magnate Auric Goldfinger at Stoke Park Golf Club in Buckinghamshire. The golf scene saw him wear a Slazenger v-neck sweater, a brand which Connery became associated with while playing golf in his free time, with a light grey marl being a favoured colour. The record major championship winner and golf course designer Jack Nicklaus said, "He loved the game of golf – Sean was a pretty darn good golfer! – and we played together several times. In May 1993, Sean and legendary driver Jackie Stewart helped me open our design of the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles in Scotland".
After Connery sold his Marbella villa in 1999, Spanish authorities launched a tax evasion investigation, alleging that the Spanish treasury had been defrauded of £5.5 million. Connery was subsequently cleared by officials, but his wife and 16 others were charged with attempting to defraud the Spanish treasury.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Diane Cilento (m. 1962-1974) Micheline Roquebrune (m. 1975) |
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Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his death in 2020, Sean Connery's net worth was estimated to be $350 million. Some sources suggest it could be as high as $370 million by 2025, although this figure may not be entirely accurate given his passing. His salary varied significantly across his career, with notable paychecks for films like the James Bond series and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
Seeking to supplement his income, Connery helped out backstage at the King's Theatre in late 1951. During a bodybuilding competition held in London in 1953, one of the competitors mentioned that auditions were being held for a production of South Pacific, and Connery landed a small part as one of the Seabees chorus boys. By the time the production reached Edinburgh, he had been given the part of Marine Cpl. Hamilton Steeves and was understudying two of the juvenile leads, and his salary was raised from £12 to £14–10s a week. The production returned the following year, out of popular demand, and Connery was promoted to the featured role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had portrayed in the West End.
Career, Business, and Investments
Connery's acting career spanned six decades, with iconic roles in:
- James Bond Series: He portrayed James Bond in seven films from 1962 to 1983, cementing his global fame.
- The Untouchables (1987): Won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): Played the role of Henry Jones Sr.
- The Hunt for Red October (1990): Starred alongside Alec Baldwin.
- The Rock (1996): A major action film that showcased his versatility.
Connery's first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. In 2009, Connery recalled a conversation in a taxi: "When I took a taxi during a recent Edinburgh Film Festival, the driver was amazed that I could put a name to every street we passed. 'How come?' he asked. 'As a boy I used to deliver milk round here', I said. 'So what do you do now?' That was rather harder to answer."
Connery first met Michael Caine at a party during the production of South Pacific in 1954, and the two later became close friends. During this production at the Opera House, Manchester, over the Christmas period of 1954, Connery developed a serious interest in the theatre through the American actor Robert Henderson, who lent him copies of the Henrik Ibsen works Hedda Gabler, The Wild Duck, and When We Dead Awaken, and later listed works by the likes of Proust, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Bernard Shaw, Joyce, and Shakespeare for him to digest. Henderson urged him to take elocution lessons and got him parts at the Maida Vale Theatre in London. He 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.
Connery's breakthrough came in the role of the fictional British secret agent James Bond. He was initially reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the franchise succeeded, his film career would greatly benefit. Between 1962 and 1967, Connery played Bond in Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice, the first five Bond films produced by Eon Productions. After departing from the role, Connery returned for the seventh film, Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971. Connery made his final appearance as Bond in Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of Thunderball produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm. All seven films were commercially successful. James Bond, as portrayed by Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.
In the mid-1960s Connery played golf with the Scottish industrialist Iain Maxwell Stewart, a connection which led to Connery directing and presenting the documentary film The Bowler and the Bunnet in 1967. The film described the Fairfield Experiment, a new approach to industrial relations carried out at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Glasgow, during the 1960s; the experiment was initiated by Stewart and supported by George Brown, the First Secretary in Harold Wilson's cabinet, in 1966. The company was facing closure, and Brown agreed to provide £1 million (£13.135 million; US$15.55 million in 2021) to enable trade unions, the management and the shareholders to try out new ways of industrial management.
Connery's Scottish roots and his experiences in filming in Glasgow's shipyards in 1966 inspired him to become a member of the centre-left Scottish National Party (SNP), which supports Scottish independence from the United Kingdom (in 2011, Connery said "The Bowler and the Bunnet was just the beginning of a journey that would lead to my long association with the Scottish National Party"). Connery supported the party both financially and through personal appearances. In 1967, he wrote to George Leslie, the SNP candidate in the 1967 Glasgow Pollok by-election, saying, "I am convinced that with our resources and skills we are more than capable of building a prosperous, vigorous and modern self-governing Scotland in which we can all take pride and which will deserve the respect of other nations." His funding of the SNP ceased in 2001, when the British Parliament passed legislation prohibiting overseas funding of political activities in the United Kingdom.
Following the announcement of his death, many co-stars and figures from the entertainment industry paid tribute to Connery, including Sam Neill, Nicolas Cage, Robert De Niro, Michael Bay, Tippi Hedren, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, George Lucas, Shirley Bassey, Kevin Costner, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barbra Streisand, John Cleese, Jane Seymour and Harrison Ford, as well as the former Bond stars George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, including the family of the late Roger Moore. Connery's longtime friend Michael Caine called him a "great star, brilliant actor and a wonderful friend". The James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli released a statement saying Connery had "revolutionized the world with his gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent. He is undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series and we shall be forever grateful to him".
In 2004, a poll in the UK Sunday Herald recognised Connery as "The Greatest Living Scot" and a 2011 EuroMillions survey named him "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". He was voted by People magazine as the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1989 and the "Sexiest Man of the Century" in 1999. If the non-Eon Bond movie Never Say Never Again is included, Connery shares the record for the most portrayals as James Bond with Roger Moore (with seven apiece). In June 1965, Time magazine observed "James Bond has developed into the biggest mass-cult hero of the decade".
Social Network
Sean Connery was not active on social media platforms, given his retirement and passing in 2020. However, his legacy continues to be celebrated by fans worldwide.
In 1959, Connery landed a leading role in the director Robert Stevenson's Walt Disney Productions film Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), alongside Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Jimmy O'Dea. The film is a tale about a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns. Upon the film's initial release, A. H. Weiler of The New York Times praised the cast (save Connery whom he described as "merely tall, dark, and handsome") and thought the film an "overpoweringly charming concoction of standard Gaelic tall stories, fantasy and romance". He also 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. Also in 1961 he portrayed the title role in a CBC television film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth with the Australian actress Zoe Caldwell cast as Lady Macbeth.
Although Bond had made him a star, Connery grew tired of the role and the pressure the franchise put on him, saying "[I am] fed up to here with the whole Bond bit" and "I have always hated that damned James Bond. I'd like to kill him". Michael Caine said of the situation, "If you were his friend in these early days you didn't raise the subject of Bond. He was, and is, a much better actor than just playing James Bond, but he became synonymous with Bond. He'd be walking down the street and people would say, 'Look, there's James Bond'. That was particularly upsetting to him".
In the 1970s Connery was part of ensemble casts in films such as Murder on the Orient Express (1974) with Vanessa Redgrave and John Gielgud, and played a British Army general in Richard Attenborough's war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), co-starring Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Olivier. In 1974, he starred in John Boorman's sci-fi thriller Zardoz. Often called one of the "weirdest and worst movies ever made" it featured Connery in a scarlet mankini – a revealing costume which generated much controversy for its un-Bond-like appearance. Despite being panned by critics at the time, the film has developed a cult following since its release. In the audio commentary to the film, Boorman relates how Connery would write poetry in his free time, describing him as "a man of great depth and intelligence" and possessing the "most extraordinary memory". In 1981, Connery appeared in the film Time Bandits as Agamemnon. The casting choice derives from a joke Michael Palin included in the script, which describes the character's removing his mask and being "Sean Connery – or someone of equal but cheaper stature". When shown the script, Connery was happy to play the supporting role. In 1981 he portrayed Marshal William T. O'Niel in the science fiction thriller Outland. In 1982, Connery narrated G'olé!, the official film of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. That same year, he was offered the role of Daddy Warbucks in Annie, going as far as taking voice lessons for the John Huston musical before turning down the part.
Education
Connery attended Tollcross Primary School in Edinburgh but did not pursue higher education. Instead, he worked various jobs before joining the Royal Navy, which ultimately led him to a career in acting after his discharge.
Afterwards, he returned to the co-op and worked as a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a labourer, an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and after a suggestion by the former Mr. Scotland Archie Brennan, as a coffin polisher, amongst other jobs. The modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour. Artist Richard Demarco, at the time a student who painted several early pictures of Connery, described him as "very straight, slightly shy, too, too beautiful for words, a virtual Adonis".
Connery was a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days. He was offered a trial with East Fife. While on tour with South Pacific, Connery played in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting. According to reports, Busby was impressed with his physical prowess and offered Connery a contract worth £25 a week immediately after the game. Connery said he was tempted to accept, but he recalls, "I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves".
Conclusion
Sean Connery's life and career are a testament to his enduring impact on cinema. His legacy continues to inspire new generations of actors and fans alike, showcasing his remarkable journey from humble beginnings to international stardom.
