Sir Sean Connery passed away at the age of 90. But do you know all about 007’s most famous performer?
Sean Connery died this Saturday, October 31, at the age of 90. The Scottish actor (and proud of it!) Leaves behind an impressive filmography, where he crossed paths with Sidney Lumet, Jean-Jacques Annaud or Brian De Palma. But do you know everything there is to know about the career of this giant of the 7th Art? The AlloCiné editorial staff offers you 5 things to (re) discover:
He almost became a professional athlete
Before becoming a world famous actor, it was to sport that Sean Connery first turned and first to bodybuilding; despite an advantageous and perfectly cut physique, he hardly managed to do better than third in a junior competition at Mister Universe and very quickly abandoned the idea of a career. His footballing skills, on the other hand, nearly allowed him to land professional status, after a recruiter for England’s Manchester United team offered him to join the Red Devils. Tempting proposal but nevertheless refused by Sean Connery: “I realized that an athlete’s career ends at 30 and I was already 23, so that day I made the smartest decision in my life.”.
He is married to a French woman
After a first marriage with the Australian actress Diane Cilento, Sean Connery remade his life in 1975 with a French painter Micheline Roquebrune who still shares his life to this day. Francophile by marriage more than by conviction (he owned a splendid villa on the heights of Nice a short time ago), the Scottish actor has never mastered the language of Molière.
He supports the independence of Scotland
A native of Edinburgh, Sean Connery has expressed his pride in being Scottish all his life. Particularly involved in his country’s independence movement, it was in a traditional kilt that he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on July 5, 2000, an outfit openly criticized by the British conservative press. His attachment to Scotland is also reflected in his desire not to erase his accent (never tell a Scotsman he has an accent!), particularly in the film In Pursuit of Red October in which the Russian Commander Marko Ramius.
He won an Oscar
We would too often tend to limit his career to his appearances in the James Bond. This would however be forgetting that throughout his career Sean Connery surrounded himself with prestigious directors, whether it was Alfred Hitchcock (No spring for Marnie), Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), John Huston (The man who wanted to be king), Sidney Lumet (The crime of the Orient Express, The Offense…) or Brian De Palma with whom he shot Les Incorruptibles, a film that allowed him to pocket the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1988.
Sean Connery, the only James Bond performer to win an Oscar:
He wore a wig in most of the James Bond
This is a revelation that could shatter a myth. Unforgettable 007 performer in six episodes of the James Bond saga (as well as the unofficial film Jamais plus Jamais) made famous for his composure and savage sex appeal, Sean Connery was nevertheless forced to wear a pastiche from of Operation Tonnerre (1965), the fault of a precocious baldness which befits little with the image which one has of the famous secret agent.