A searched portrait of the Scottish actor with a complex personality, who will never cease to free himself from the famous secret agent.
by Alain Constant
At the end of the 1960s, he was one of the most famous men in the world. And all his life, it will be difficult for him to go out without being approached by fans who ask him for an autograph by calling him “M. Bond”. A reality that Sean Connery (1930-2020) has never supported.
During his career, the athletic and attractive Ecossais, a promising theater actor, amazing in many films led by directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet, John Huston or John Boorman, will try to distance himself with This character of the agent 007. A costume (tailor -made) which he ended for the first time in 1962 (James Bond against Dr. No) and carried seven times. Little in a cinematographic career as rich and diverse as hers (70 films).
violence on the skin
This aspect of the fight led by Sean Connery to get rid of the bulky Bond label is carefully analyzed in this documentary rich in films extracts, British television archives, and interviews with the interested party and Relatives that make it possible to better understand the complex character of Sean Connery.
Aggressive, sickly jealous, he will fight with various fortunes to try to channel this violence on the edge. Aggressiveness and jealousy that will earn him some problems with women, on filming sets as in the private sphere, and in particular with actress Diane Cilento, her first wife, from 1962 to 1973.
Money will have been a powerful engine for the one who born in a disadvantaged district of Edinburgh from a mother housekeeper and a workers’ father in a rubber factory and who delivered milk at 7 years before Get in the navy then painfully earn your life by virtering coffins.
What would have happened if the young gifted and promising actor actor in the mysterious investigation (1961), a film in which he embodies a thief who prowls like a cage animal, dressed with elegance (already!) , had not won the role of James Bond, a character created by Ian Fleming and launched on the screen by the producers of the franchise, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman? We will never know.
The fact remains that the Scottish was not ready to be overwhelmed by the success of the spy at the secret service of His Majesty (a shame for a Scottish!). But, the cinema paying more than the theater, Sean Connery will embody the most famous secret agent in the world in six films, from 1962 to 1971, before putting on the last time the costume of 007 in the unofficial never ever, in 1983.
Why this late return to Bond’s skin? Learning that Roger Moore obtained much higher pills than his family to play the role of Bond, Sean Connery, mad with rage, had decided to show who was the strongest. Final result for the release of the two bonds in 1983: Octopussy with Moore is a card, never again is a failure.
Throughout his long career, Connery will make it a point of honor to find radically different roles with great directors, sometimes without convincing (Zardoz, de John Boorman, 1974), sometimes with happiness (the incorruptibles, of Brian de Palma, 1987, will earn him an Oscar for best supporting role in 1988). But the general public only retains from him James Bond. Gold roles, like diamonds, are eternal …