To all the fans who have watched innumerable characters play 007, none played the part as indelibly as Mr. Connery.
It is beyond belief, of course.No one will ever dare to let James Bond die. But that’s how I feel now that the first actor to portray the legendary super spy on the silver screen is no longer here.
On Friday, October 30, Scottish actor Sean Connery died of old age in his home. The actor had long lived a secluded life.
“Bond, James Bond” was the character’s iconic self-introduction, and to fans who have watched a number of actors play the role — known as Agent 007 — none played the part as magnetically as Mr. Sean Connery.
Tall, dark, and dashing, he embodied the suave and resourceful secret agent in the first five Bond films and seven overall, vanquishing diabolical villains and women alike beginning with “Dr. No” in 1962. He created the Gentleman look. Suited, clean-shaven, and class.
And everything that makes Bond James Bond is already in that first character. that charming arrogance, but also that hypothermic self-mockery. Every Bond that came after Sean Connery has only magnified one of his traits.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Mr. Connery transformed himself into one of the larger than life type old men of the movies.
His achievements in the film were recognized with an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award. In 1987 he was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and he received the US Kennedy Center Honors lifetime achievement award in 1999. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama. In 2004, Connery was polled in the Sunday Herald as “The Greatest Living Scot” and in a 2011 EuroMillions survey as “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. But anyone who reviews his filmography can only conclude that that is only the real “alliance of extraordinary guys.” An era died with him.
He is survived by wife Micheline Roquebrune, a son, and three stepchildren.
