Sir Sean Connery (1930-2020)

May he rest in Peace he certainly deserves it, a big loss of a moviestar even if we have not really seen him for a long time.

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Grief this guy’s a clown. Is there no depth to which he will not stoop for his own shitty benefits?

He, Trump, in case there is any doubt, is quite bereft of any scintilla of class whatsoever.

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Sad news, RIP. A true legend, and an amazing 007.

It’s hard to believe that we have now lost Sean, Roger, Lois, Honor and Claudine.

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Watch your back, George.

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“With the glorious exceptions of Brando and Olivier, there’s no screen actor I’d rather watch than Sean Connery. His vitality may make him the most richly masculine of all English-speaking actors; that thick, rumbling Scotsman’s voice of his actually transforms English, muffles the clipped edges and humanizes the language.

“Connery looks absolutely confident in himself as a man. Women want to meet him, and men want to be him.” – Pauline Kael

“Nonprofessionals just didn’t realize what superb high-comedy acting that Bond role was. It was like what they used to say about Cary Grant. ‘Oh,’ they’d say, ‘he’s just got charm.’ Well, first of all, charm is actually not all that easy a quality to come by. And what they overlooked in both Cary Grant and Sean was their enormous skill.” – Sidney Lumet

“There are only seven genuine movie stars in the world today, and Sean is one of them.” – Steven Spielberg

When Sean Connery turned 90 I realized there was a good chance that someday soon I would wake to see his obituary. The news is neither shocking nor surprising, just sad. Not for Connery, who lived a terrific life, going from the slums of Edinburgh to the top of the world, becoming one of the greatest icons of modern cinema, but for us. He was larger than life, so how could he possibly die? To lose a man who embodied legends feels wrong, almost impossible.

The producers of the Bond movies were extraordinarily lucky—the man they cast was a natural movie star. Not merely a good actor or camera subject, but an actor with the charisma and presence displayed by a hero of history and legend. Who else could so convincingly play Agamemnon, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Hotspur, Macbeth, and Richard the Lionheart? Who else could seem so at home in those roles? The man with the capacity to embody these characters was fated to turn James Bond into a modern-day mythic hero. And when Connery embodied Bond he seared the character into the world’s consciousness. Millions responded to his indisputable charisma, animal magnetism, and suave sense of irony and play. He created the role and defined it. For all of these reasons, it is impossible to imagine another actor surpassing him as Bond. Such an actor need to be what Connery was: an actor capable of creating legends onscreen, an icon in the same line as the larger-than-life screen gods–Bogart, Cooper, Grant, and Gable.

I would rather celebrate than mourn a man who enjoyed such a brilliant career. Like many great stars he made several duds, but all are compensated for by his triumphs. I wish he had gone out with a better film than the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I would have loved to see him as King Lear) or had appeared in few more films, but I can’t blame him for being fed up with modern Hollywood, which he said was run by idiots.

Though many remember him for his roles in blockbusters of the 80s and 90s, Connery did his greatest work in the 1970s, in the movies where he fully emerged from Bond’s shadow. The greatest evidence of Connery’s acting prowess is The Offence (1973), with his most challenging and lest glamorous role, a grubby, burnt-out small-town detective. Many actors shrink and grow drab in such down-to-earth, exhausting parts, but Connery stayed riveting.

To witness the greatest display of Connery’s megawatt stature, his ability to embody legendary characters, watch his “mythic trilogy” of The Wind and the Lion (1975), Man Who Would Be King (1975), and Robin and Marian (1976). All of the characters in these films are flawed, flesh and blood men; Connery’s earthiness never lets us forget this. But these men also attain a form of mythic greatness, conveyed by Connery’s inner strength and command of the screen.

I don’t know what Sean Connery was like in private life, but he had unrivaled charisma onscreen. Charisma is ultimately a form of self-confidence arising from a person’s sense of his own merit. There is nothing self-conscious or forced in this person’s acceptance of himself and his power. He is at home with the best of himself and thus able to express his finest qualities without strain or pretense. Many of us envy such people, so when Connery played James Bond he became the great fantasy hero of his age. To have such natural charisma and self-confidence made him the eternal James Bond. And yet after Bond this self-acceptance and confidence allowed him to escape sleek modern fantasy and play legends and mythic archetypes that were also deeply human. No other actor of our time managed this. Sean Connery takes his greatness to the grave.

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I only know of Sean Connery’s work because of Bond. I grew up with Moore, and he’s my sentimental favorite, but I always made time for Connery’s other works. Meteor, Medicine Man, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Connery elevated all of those projects. Occasionally, like with TIme Bandits or The Untouchables, that Catherine Zeta Jones project in the 90s, the material matched.

Every woman I ever dated always had a soft spot for Sean. That says a lot.

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And Diana??

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This is really a lovely and moving tribute.

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I suppose it was inevitable that this would happen but it still hurts to lose someone who meant - and still means - so much to untold millions of people all all across the world. I’m a Scot, who has been fortunate enough to have a career that took me all over the world. When people find out I’m from Scotland, 99% of the time the first reference point they have is Sean Connery. It’s happened in the most unlikely places where people will have had no idea where Scotland is. Doesn’t matter if it was Afghanistan or America. Everybody knew him, knew he was a Scot and they always smiled when they talked about him or James Bond. I still have o idea how some of the people I’ve met could know about the James Bond films but they did and they loved him in those films.

On a personal level, growing up as a kid in the 70s and 80s, when I heard a Scottish voice on TV it was usually a drunk or a beggar in London. It was a cheap stereotype. Sean Connery was different. He was the coolest man in the room - in every room he walked into (I pinched that description from an online article). He was a hero to us not just for being James Bond but for being a Scot who was the coolest guy in the world and wore his Scottishness proudly.

And that’s before we get into talking about a long, long career filled with extraordinary and memorable performances. We have lost someone who held - and still holds - a very special place in our hearts.

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Baldwin does a pretty good Connery.

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Certainly better than some.

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Thinking about Sir Sean’s years as Bond, I realized that he shaped his portrayals to the age he was when he was playing the character, where by contrast, Sir Roger’s Bond aged along with him.

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I do count NSNA when Sir Sean was 53 as part of the arc of his portrayal(s) of Bond. I think he brought something to his performances of an older Bond that Sir Roger did not.

I count NSNA also. IMO his performance was better than DAF

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Connery’s NSNA performance was better than both DAF and YOLT.

Any man that can play a Russian sub captain with a Scottish accent and still be believable has charisma beyond imaginable. Connery exuded charm with a grace that is beyond most male actors today. You can see it in how his female costars talk about him.

He’ll be remembered as a great, up there with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart. One could do worse than emulate Connery as a male role model.

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I tried - I did better with Moore.

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Tributes from Pierce Brosnan:

Instagram

and Harrison Ford

Variety

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Sean really had a special charm and charisma about him. He was very serious and professional, other actors and directors say this.

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Been watching more Sean Connery interviews on YouTube, and the man was a charismatic genius. He was even cooler in real life than on screen. A really impressive quick wit.

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