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 | Sean Connery biography |
Scottish leading man who's real name was Thomas Sean Connery.
Date of Birth
25 August 1930, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Birth Name
Thomas Sean Connery
Nickname
Big Tam (as a teenager)
Height
6' 2" (1.89 m)
While one might dispute the actual number of people who would qualify for star status, no one would dispute the premise that Sean Connery is one of them. Moreover, he is not merely a star - he is a super-star.
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), more commonly known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, 2 BAFTA Awards and 3 Golden Globes.
He is best known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,The Hunt for Red October, Dragonheart, and The Rock.
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Connery has been polled as the "greatest living Scot" and was knighted in July 2000. In 1989, he was proclaimed the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, and in 1999, at the age of 69, he was voted the Sexiest Man of the Century.
Thomas Sean Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh to Euphemia "Effie" (born Maclean), a cleaning woman, and Joseph Connery, a factory worker and lorry driver. His father was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent with roots in County Wexford, while his mother was a Protestant. He has a brother, Neil. Connery claims he was called Sean, his middle name, long before becoming an actor, explaining that when he was young he had an Irish friend named Samus and that those who knew them both had decided to call Connery by his middle name whenever both were present.
His first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. He then joined the Royal Navy during which time he opted for two tattoos that are described on his official website as:
'unlike many tattoos, his were not frivolous - his tattoos reflect two of his lifelong commitments: his family and Scotland. After six decades, his tattoos still reflect those two ideas: One tattoo is a tribute to his parents and reads "Mum and Dad," and the other is self explanatory, "Scotland Forever."
Connery was later discharged from the navy on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer. Afterwards, he returned to the co-op, then worked as, among other things, a lorry driver, a labourer, anartist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art,and a coffin polisher.
Looking to pick up some extra money, he helped out backstage at the King's Theatre in late 1951. He became interested in the proceedings, and a career was launched.
He also took up bodybuilding as a hobby. While his official website claims 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. One of the other competitors mentioned that auditions were being held for a production of South Pacific; Connery landed a small part.
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 offered Connery a contract worth 25 a week immediately after the game. Connery admits that 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."
One of his major early film parts was in Another Time, Another Place (1958). During filming, star Lana Turner's possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, who was visiting from Los Angeles, believed she was having an affair with Connery at work. He stormed onto the set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery disarm Stompanato and knock him flat on his back, causing Stompanato to be banned from the set. Connery later recounted that he had to lie low for a while after receiving threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss Mickey Cohen.
Connery landed a leading role in the famed Disney film Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). He also had a prominent television role in Rudolph Cartier's 1961 production of Anna Karenina for BBC Television, in which he co-starred with Claire Bloom.
Connery was married to actress Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1973. They had a son, actor Jason Connery. Connery has been married to French painter Micheline Roquebrune (born 1929) since 1975.
Connery, a keen golfer, owned the Domaine de Terre Blanche in the South of France for twenty years (from 1979) where he planned to build his dream golf course on the 300 hectares of land but the dream was not realised until he sold it to German billionaire Dietmar Hopp in 1999.
Connery was knighted in July 2000.
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