50 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?

Decades later a taxi driver was amazed he could name every street; 'As a boy I used to deliver milk round here,' he explained.

Which two tattoos did Connery acquire in the Royal Navy?

He was discharged at 19 with a duodenal ulcer, a family complaint, after training as a gunner and serving on HMS Formidable.

Which football manager reportedly offered Connery a 25-pounds-a-week contract?

He turned it down, reasoning that a footballer is over the hill by 30 and he was already 23: 'one of my more intelligent moves'.

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

He had begun bodybuilding at 18 and entered the Mr. Universe contest, though accounts differ on how he placed.

Which street crew gave Connery a 'hard man' reputation after he cracked two members' heads together on a balcony?

Six of them had followed him to the Palais de Danse after he stopped them stealing his jacket in a billiard hall.

Which future star did Connery befriend for life at a party during South Pacific in 1954?

They later co-starred in The Man Who Would Be King, which both called their favourite film.

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

Lana Turner's boyfriend suspected an affair; Connery later lay low after threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss Mickey Cohen.

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?

He played Macbeth separately in a 1961 Canadian TV film opposite Zoe Caldwell.

How many times did Connery play James Bond on film?

Six for Eon Productions plus the 1983 non-Eon Never Say Never Again, tying Roger Moore's record.

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?

Fleming had earlier said Connery was 'not what I envisioned of James Bond looks'.

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?

He had insisted designer Ken Adam build the barrier after reading the script; it was not a fixed structure.

Which was the only Bond film Connery made after Diamonds Are Forever, produced outside Eon in 1983?

His wife supplied the title, a dig at his vow never to play Bond again; fight choreographer Steven Seagal broke his wrist during filming.

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 that Hitchcock's top leading man never asked for a script, how did Connery reply before Marnie?

He worried about being typecast as a spy and did not want a rerun 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?

The Bowler and the Bunnet covered the Fairfield Experiment; he later said it began his long association with the SNP.

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

John Huston directed the Kipling adaptation, and both actors called it their favourite film.

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

Often called one of the weirdest films ever made, it has since gained a cult following; Boorman said Connery wrote poetry between takes.

Connery's casting as Agamemnon in Time Bandits came from a joke in whose script?

The stage direction described the character unmasking as 'Sean Connery – or someone of equal but cheaper stature'.

Connery took voice lessons for which musical role before turning it down in 1982?

John Huston was directing; the same year Connery narrated G'ole!, the official film of the 1982 World Cup.

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?

He was the first Scottish actor to win a major Oscar, playing a hard-nosed cop alongside Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness.

Who played Al Capone opposite Connery in the film that won him his Oscar?

Roger Ebert wrote that 'the best performance in the movie is Connery'.

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

Harrison Ford said Connery's suggestions at the writing stage gave the film 'a lot more complexity and value'.

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

That year he also starred in The Rock; in 1991 he had a cameo as Richard the Lionheart in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

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

Fifteen years earlier he had played Robin Hood himself, opposite Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian.

Which 2003 film was so stressful that Connery retired rather than 'go through such stress ever again'?

He said director Stephen Norrington 'would have been arrested for insanity' and tried to salvage the film in the edit.

Connery turned down which Lord of the Rings role, saying he did not understand the script?

The reported offer of $30 million plus 15% of the gross would have earned him around $450 million.

Besides Lord of the Rings, Connery also declined which Harry Potter role and which Matrix character?

He did agree to voice and lend his likeness to the 2005 From Russia with Love video game.

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

He blamed 'the idiots now making films in Hollywood', and later insisted 'retirement is just too much damned fun'.

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

He also executive-produced an expanded 80-minute version; reviews were negative.

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?

The French-Moroccan artist supplied the title Never Say Never Again; the marriage survived his affair with Lynsey de Paul.

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

The switch followed his friendship with chairman David Murray.

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

The scene at Stoke Park made Connery synonymous with the Slazenger v-neck; Jack Nicklaus later called him 'a pretty darn good golfer'.

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

His funding stopped in 2001 when Parliament banned overseas funding of UK political activity.

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

He was finally knighted at Holyrood Palace on 5 July 2000.

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

He had received the Kennedy Center Honors the previous year and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1998.

Connery's neighbour at his villa in Kranidi, Greece, sharing a helicopter pad, was the king of which country?

He also owned the Domaine de Terre Blanche in the south of France until selling it to Dietmar Hopp in 1999.

In which country did Connery die in October 2020?

He died in his sleep at 90 in Lyford Cay; his ashes were scattered in Scotland in 2022.

People magazine named Connery 'Sexiest Man Alive' in which year, when he was 59?

A decade later the magazine went further and called him 'Sexiest Man of the Century'.

A bronze bust of Connery stands outside a Scottish club in which unlikely European capital?

The Estonian club's members are mostly local Scotophiles plus a handful of expatriate Scots.

Where did Connery's Bond rank on the American Film Institute's list of greatest screen heroes?

Time observed in June 1965 that Bond had become 'the biggest mass-cult hero of the decade'.

Connery won a Tony Award in 1998 as producer of which play?

Yasmina Reza's comedy about a white painting won Best Play.

With which actor did Connery share the 1972 Golden Globe Henrietta Award for 'World Film Favorite – Male'?

The award reflected his global popularity after six outings as Bond; he went on to play the agent a seventh time in 1983.