47 Fun Facts About Sean Connery

In which city was Sean Connery born in 1930?

He grew up at 176 Fountainbridge and was known as Tommy, and later 'Big Tam', before adopting his middle name.

What was Connery's first job?

Milkman: he left school at 13 and went to work full time for the local dairy.

Which two tattoos did Connery acquire in the Royal Navy?

'Mum and Dad' and 'Scotland Forever': he got them in the navy, which discharged him at 19 with a duodenal ulcer.

In which Spanish resort did Connery and his wife Micheline live for more than two decades?

Marbella: after they sold their villa there, Spanish authorities opened a tax-fraud investigation into the sale.

Connery learned about auditions for South Pacific while competing in what?

A bodybuilding contest: he had entered Mr. Universe, though accounts differ on how he placed, and joined South Pacific's London chorus.

Which actor replaced Connery as James Bond in 1969?

George Lazenby: Eon offered him a multi-film contract, but he left the role after just one film.

Which gangster pulled a gun on Connery on the 1958 set of Another Time, Another Place and got flattened?

Johnny Stompanato: Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend was then quietly put out of the country by Scotland Yard.

In which 1959 Disney film about leprechauns did Connery have a leading role?

The New York Times dismissed him as 'merely tall, dark, and handsome'.

Which Shakespeare character did Connery play in the BBC's 1960 series An Age of Kings?

Hotspur: he was still little known then, two years before James Bond made him a star.

Counting his non-Eon comeback, Connery played Bond seven times, as often as which other actor?

Roger Moore: he had wanted to leave the role, but was enticed back for Octopussy.

Which was Connery's first Bond film?

After it opened in 1962 he received thousands of fan letters a week and 'Bond... James Bond' entered the language.

Which producer's wife is credited with persuading her husband that Connery was the right man for Bond?

Ian Fleming initially grumbled that he was 'an overgrown stunt-man' but changed his mind after the Dr. No premiere.

From which Highland village did Ian Fleming, impressed by Connery, give Bond a Scottish father in You Only Live Twice?

Glencoe: Connery's screen Bond also led Fleming to give the character more humour and a more relaxed manner.

Which director 'took Sean under his wing', teaching him how to walk, talk and even eat as Bond?

Moneypenny actress Lois Maxwell recalled the tutoring; Young had already directed Connery in Action of the Tiger in 1957.

During Thunderball, which creature breached a Plexiglas partition and forced Connery out of Largo's pool?

A shark: the Plexiglas barrier Connery had demanded was not fixed, so when a shark got through he fled the pool.

Which was the only Bond film Connery made outside Eon, released in 1983?

Never Say Never Again: the title nods to his earlier vow never to play Bond again.

Which future action star broke Connery's wrist while choreographing fights on his 1983 Bond comeback?

The troubled production soured him on the studios and he made no films for two years.

Told Cary Grant never asked for scripts, how did Connery reply before Marnie?

'I'm not Cary Grant': worried about being typecast as a spy, he did not want to make a variation of North by Northwest.

Which Sidney Lumet film of 1965 was the first of five Connery made with the director?

Peter Bradshaw calls it and Marnie his two great non-Bond pictures of the 1960s; it won Best Screenplay at Cannes.

Connery's 1967 documentary covered a shipyard industrial-relations experiment in which city?

Glasgow: the Fairfield experiment was the brainchild of industrialist Sir Iain Stewart, one of Connery's golfing friends.

In The Man Who Would Be King (1975), two ex-soldiers set themselves up as kings where?

Kafiristan: Afghanistan's ruler conquered the region in 1896 and renamed it Nuristan.

In which 1974 John Boorman sci-fi film did Connery wear a scarlet mankini?

Zardoz: Boorman said Connery had just stopped playing Bond and wasn't getting any jobs, so he took the part.

The Time Bandits script that joked about casting Connery as Agamemnon was co-written by Terry Gilliam and which Python?

Michael Palin: their script joked that the king would be Sean Connery, 'or an actor of equal but cheaper stature'.

In the film Goldfinger, what does the villain threaten Connery's strapped-down Bond with?

An industrial laser: in Ian Fleming's novel, Goldfinger threatens Bond with a circular saw instead.

For which 1986 film did Connery win the BAFTA for Best Actor?

The same year, Highlander showed he could play older mentor to a young lead, a role he repeated for years.

For which film did Connery win his Academy Award?

The Untouchables: yet an Empire magazine poll later named his Scottish accent in it the worst in film.

Who played Al Capone opposite Connery in 1987?

Robert De Niro: Bob Hoskins had been lined up as a backup in case De Niro couldn't take the part.

What was the first name of Connery's character, Indiana's father, in The Last Crusade?

Henry: the film reveals Indy is really Henry Jones Jr., who took the name Indiana from the family dog.

Connery voiced Draco, a dragon, in which 1996 film?

Dragonheart: animators worked from sheets of Connery's faces in his earlier films, so the dragon would emote like him.

Which king did Connery play in a brief cameo at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves?

Richard the Lionheart: fifteen years earlier he had played Robin Hood himself, opposite Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian.

After which troubled film did Connery quit acting?

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: he clashed with its director, and chose retirement rather than go through such stress again.

Connery turned down which Lord of the Rings role?

Gandalf: he reportedly turned down a deal that could have earned him about $450 million.

Which Harry Potter role did Connery turn down?

Albus Dumbledore: he also passed on playing the Architect in the Matrix sequels.

On receiving which honour in June 2006 did Connery confirm his retirement from acting?

AFI Life Achievement: he said he had grown fed up with 'the idiots' now making films in Hollywood.

Connery briefly came out of retirement in 2012 to voice the lead in which Scottish animated film?

Sir Billi: yet in 2007 he had refused to come back as Indiana Jones's father for the fourth film.

Which Australian actress was Connery's first wife, and mother of his son Jason?

They married in 1962; Connery drew the cover of her 1967 novel The Manipulator.

What was the profession of Micheline Roquebrune, Connery's wife from 1975 until his death?

Painter: Micheline Roquebrune met Connery at a golf tournament in Morocco, and they married in 1975.

Which Scottish club did Sean Connery, raised a Celtic fan, switch his support to later in life?

Rangers: he switched to Celtic's bitter rivals after becoming close friends with the club's chairman, David Murray.

Which golfer gave Connery lessons before the golf match with Auric Goldfinger was filmed?

Peter Alliss: he later gave up tournament golf and became the BBC's lead golf commentator.

Which political movement did Connery support financially and in person for decades?

The SNP: his funding stopped in 2001, when a new UK law banned overseas funding of political activity.

Which Labour politician reportedly vetoed Connery's knighthood in 1997 and 1998 over his politics?

Donald Dewar: despite the reported veto, Connery was finally knighted in July 2000.

Where was Connery knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in July 2000?

Holyrood Palace: he was knighted there wearing a kilt and traditional Highland dress.

In Highlander, which actor played the Scottish immortal Connor MacLeod, with Connery as his mentor?

Christopher Lambert: born in New York and raised in Geneva and Paris, he trained with a dialect coach before filming.

In which country did Connery die in October 2020?

The Bahamas: he died in his sleep at 90 at home in Lyford Cay, Nassau, and his ashes were later scattered in Scotland.

In The Hunt for Red October, what does Connery's Soviet submarine captain secretly plan to do?

Defect to the West: Klaus Maria Brandauer was first cast as the captain before the role went to Connery.

Connery used his whole fee from which Bond film to set up the Scottish International Education Trust?

Diamonds Are Forever: United Artists paid a then-record $1.25 million to lure him back to the role.

Connery shared the 1972 'World Film Favorite – Male' Golden Globe with which Magnificent Seven star?

Charles Bronson: before acting, he worked as a coal miner until he was drafted in World War II.