Sean Connery

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor and film producer. He holds the distinction of being the first actor to bring the fictional British secret agent James Bond to the big screen, appearing as Bond in seven films from 1962 to 1983. Connery launched the role in *Dr. No* (1962) and went on to star in the Eon Productions series with *From Russia with Love* (1963), *Goldfinger* (1964), *Thunderball* (1965), *You Only Live Twice* (1967), and *Diamonds Are Forever* (1971). His last turn as Bond came in *Never Say Never Again* (1983), a film not produced by Eon.

Beyond Bond, Connery is remembered for collaborations with directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet, and John Huston. These partnerships produced films such as *Marnie* (1964), *The Hill* (1965), *The Offence* (1973), *Murder on the Orient Express* (1974), and *The Man Who Would Be King* (1975). His other notable credits include *Robin and Marian* (1976), *A Bridge Too Far* (1977), *Time Bandits* (1981), *Highlander* and *The Name of the Rose* (both 1986), *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* (1989), *The Hunt for Red October* (1990), *Dragonheart* and *The Rock* (both 1996), and *Finding Forrester* (2000). His final film appearances were in *The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen* (2003) and *Sir Billi* (2012).

Connery earned many honors over his career. For his performance in *The Untouchables* (1987), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor—becoming the first Scottish actor to win a major Oscar—as well as the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. That same year, he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for *The Name of the Rose*. As a producer of the play *Art*, he took home the Tony Award for Best Play in 1998. He also received honorary accolades including the Cecil B. DeMille Award (1987), the BAFTA Fellowship (1998), and the Kennedy Center Honors (1999). France made him a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, and Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in the 2000 New Year Honours for his services to drama.

Thomas Sean Connery was born at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 25 August 1930, named after his paternal grandfather. He was of half-Irish and half-Scottish descent. He grew up at No. 176 Fountainbridge, a block since demolished. His mother, Euphemia McBain "Effie" McLean, worked as a cleaning woman; she was the daughter of Neil McLean and Helen Forbes Ross, named after her father's mother, Euphemia McBain. His 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 rest of his family was Scottish, and his maternal great-grandparents were native Scottish Gaelic-speakers from Fife and Uig on Skye. His father was Roman Catholic, his mother Protestant. Connery had a younger brother, Neil, and was often called "Tommy" as a child. Small in primary school, he grew rapidly around age 12, reaching his full adult height of 6'2" by 18. Known as "Big Tam" in his teens, he said he lost his virginity to an adult woman in an ATS uniform at age 14. He had an Irish childhood friend named Séamus; when together, those who knew them both called Connery by his middle name Sean to emphasize the assonance, and he preferred it thereafter.

His first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. In 2009, Connery recalled a conversation in a taxi. At 16, in 1946, he joined the Royal Navy, where he got two tattoos. His official website states these were not frivolous but reflected lifelong commitments to family and Scotland: one read "Mum and Dad," the other "Scotland Forever." He trained at the naval gunnery school in Portsmouth and in an anti-aircraft crew, later serving as an Able Seaman on HMS Formidable. He was discharged at 19 on medical grounds due to a duodenal ulcer, a condition affecting many males in his family. After the navy, he returned to the co-op, working as a lorry driver, lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, labourer, artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and—following a suggestion from former Mr. Scotland Archie Brennan—a coffin polisher, among other jobs. Modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour. Artist Richard Demarco, then a student who painted early pictures of Connery, described him as "very straight, slightly shy, too, too beautiful for words, a virtual Adonis."

Connery began bodybuilding at 18, training heavily from 1951 with Ellington, a former British Army gym instructor. His official website says he placed third in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest, though most sources place him in the 1953 competition—either third in the Junior class or unplaced in the Tall Man category. He said he was soon deterred from bodybuilding because Americans often beat him due to sheer muscle size and their refusal to engage in athletic activity that might reduce muscle mass. A keen footballer, he played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his youth and was offered a trial with East Fife. While on tour with *South Pacific*, he played in a match against a local team that Manchester United manager Matt Busby happened to be scouting.