British actor Sean Connery has died aged 90
Sean Connery in 2008 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
CC 3.0 / Stuart Crawford
Text by: Nicolas Sanders Follow
10 mins
His name was Bond, James Bond.
But not only, because Sean Connery was one of the biggest movie stars of the second half of the 20th century.
His family announced his death to the BBC on Saturday, October 31.
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An illustrious stranger who wears a tuxedo so well.
The producers of "James Bond 007 vs. Dr. No", the very first opus in the adventures of the British secret agent, could not afford to hire a star.
David Niven was in the line to play the hero invented by Ian Fleming, but limited budget requires, it is a young Scottish actor who is selected in 1962 by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli.
His filmography then boils down to a dozen appearances in as many B-series films, with the exception of “Another time, another place” (1958) in which he co-starred with Hollywood icon Lana Turner.
He also has to his credit a small figuration in "The longest day".
In the scene of the landing on the Norman beach of Sword, Sean Connery plays a soldier who falls into the water while exiting his barge ...
"
It does not look like the idea I had of James Bond
" declares Ian Fleming when he discovers the actor who will take on the role of his character.
But “
he has the requisite sexual charisma
” objects Blanche Blackwell, the writer's own girlfriend!
The latter will completely revise his opinion of Sean Connery after the film's box office triumph.
Spicy detail, the actor's baldness, already incipient in 1962, forced him to wear a wig in the seven James Bonds he shot during his career.
Apprentice butcher after school
When he was born in 1930 in Fountainbridge, a working-class suburb of Edinburgh, absolutely nothing predestined Thomas Sean Connery to become a super star on the big screen.
Coming from a very modest background - his mother was a cleaner and his father was a construction machinery operator - "Tommy Connery" had to work from the age of eight to provide for himself, and those of his family. just got bigger with the birth of her little brother Neil.
Distributor of milk at dawn, he is an apprentice butcher in the afternoon, upon leaving school.
At 17, he interrupted his schooling to join the Royal Navy, which he left three years later because of a stomach ulcer.
A military experience during which he was tattooed on his forearm "Dad and Mum" ("mommy and daddy") and "Scotland Forever" ("Scotland forever").
Despite the makeup, a trained eye can spot them in many scenes from films where the actor has bare arms.
Back on dry land, Sean Connery goes on to an impressive number of small trades.
Alternately mason, delivery man, lifeguard, model at the Edinburgh School of Fine Arts, he was also for a time varnisher of coffins.
His first appetite for the stage came to him as a handyman backstage at King's Theater, one of Scotland's biggest theaters.
With an athletic build - he measures 1.89 m - the one who is still only a young man of 20 years also practices bodybuilding.
His third place in the junior ranking of the Mister Universe competition in 1950 led him to cross paths with another competitor, who suggested that he audition for an extra role in a musical called " South Pacific ”.
"One of the smartest decisions I've ever made"
A small role which marks the beginning of his fantastic career, but which could just as easily have been the last.
During a friendly football match against a local team during the tour of the play, Sean Connery was noticed for his ... kicking game by Matt Busby, then manager of the English club Manchester United.
Seduced at first by the recruitment offer that Busby offers him, he ends up giving it up.
He will explain this later in a comment not without irony: "
I understood that a professional footballer could have his past behind him at 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become actor, which turned out to be one of the smartest decisions I've ever made
.
It is also from this time that their meeting with Michael Caine in 1954 dates, the beginning of an unfailing friendship, crowned in 1975 by their participation in John Huston's masterpiece, "The man who wanted to be King ".
Until his first role in James Bond, Sean Connery essentially divided his time in the 1950s between theater and television.
And when he's not acting, he devours Henrik Ibsen's plays, from “Wild Duck” to “When we wake up from the dead” through “Hedda Gabler”.
Proust, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Shaw, Joyce and Shakespeare are his daily readings.
He also takes elocution classes to perfect his diction.
But throughout his life, he never really departed from his Scottish accent which he retained in each of his roles, even to play a Soviet submarine captain in "Pursuit of Red October." " in 1990.
Recruited by an ultra-violent gang
An anecdote that occurred in his very early years as an actor should be recalled.
The story takes place in the heart of Edinburgh in a smoky billiard room.
The members of an ultra-violent gang in the city call out harshly young Connery to relieve him of his leather jacket.
Determined not to be plucked, the latter manages to leave the premises.
Pursued in the street by six thugs from the gang, he has no other choice but to face them.
The thugs had clearly underestimated the strength of their victim who overwhelmed them one by one.
Impressed by his fighting techniques, the gang leaders asked him to join their ranks a month later!
An offer he politely declined, satisfied to be respected by the most ruthless gang in the Scottish capital.
Although his 007 incarnation brought him success and fame, Sean Connery over time distanced himself from the Secret Agent in Her Majesty's Service.
"
He has become synonymous with Bond but he's an actor who is worth much more than that
" remarked Michael Caine.
A commentary perfectly illustrated by the very prolific career of Sean Connery.
Between two episodes of James Bond, he landed a leading role in "No Spring for Marnie" by Alfred Hitchcock (1964) or in "The Hill of Lost Men" by Sydney Lumet (1965).
He also found the American director a few years later in "The Murder of the Orient Express" (1974).
In 1977, under the direction of Richard Attenborough, he appeared in the cast of the eponymous adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book, "A Bridge Too Far", alongside Michael Caine once again, but also Dirk Bogarde, James Caan and Laurence Olivier.
His passion for football, never completely put aside, led him even in 1982 to be the voice of “G'olé!
», The official documentary produced by FIFA on the World Cup organized that year in Spain.
"I didn't understand anything about the Lord of the Rings scenario"
With “Never again, never again” released in 1983, Sean Connery is once again in the James Bond series.
The title of the film, suggested by his French wife Micheline Roquebrune, ironically refers to what Sean Connery never failed to say about his possible participation in a new James Bond: "
I will never play Bond again
".
Despite the success met in theaters by the film, various production problems - both artistic and financial - lead to the disgust of the big studios.
He remained two years away from film sets before returning to a great role hailed by the public and the profession.
It is the character of Guillaume de Baskerville that he plays in “The name of the rose” directed by the Frenchman Jean-Jacques Annaud who in 1986 reconciles him with the profession.
An unforgettable role which has also earned a Bafta for best actor in the Scottish.
With the role he plays the same year in "Highlander" by Russel Mulcahy where he replies to Christophe Lambert, Sean Connery breathes new life into his career, confirmed in 1987 in "Les Incorruptibles" by Brian De Palma - who earned him an Oscar - then in 1989 in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" under the direction of Steven Spielberg.
But when Peter Jackson offers him in 2000 to be Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings", the actor refuses the role, because he explains then, "
I did not understand anything about the scenario
".
The $ 400 million promised to him for his participation in the adaptation of Tolkien's novel did not make him hot or cold.
The year before, he also turned down the production of "The Matrix" which anticipated him in the role eventually played by Lawrence Fishburne.
His disillusionment with "
the idiots who now make movies in Hollywood
" in his own words convinced him to taste a deserved retirement.
"
Retirement is just too much fun
" he used to let go to better rule out any cinematic return.
"
The sexiest man still alive
"
Undisputed hero in Scotland, whose independence he fervently defended for a long time, Sean Connery even put his hand in his pocket by generously funding the Scottish national party (SNP) for several years.
“Sir Connery” since his ennoblement by Elizabeth II on July 5, 2000, he has long seen this distinction delayed because of his political views.
While many specialists and critics observe that the acting of actor Sean Connery has never ceased to improve over a career that covers half a century, his charisma and legendary charm have not withered away Through time.
In 1989, at the dawn of his sixties, Sean Connery was voted by readers of famous People magazine as "The Sexiest Man Still Alive".
A reward he greeted with one of those jokes he had the secret: "
Actually, there aren't many dead sexy men, do there?"
Sean Connery was ignoring him when he said these words, but despite his disappearance, he is not about to be robbed of the title he has been awarded.
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