Sean Connery

The first James Bond movie I saw was Diamonds Are Forever. I was ten, and I was over the moon about it. I saw it twice. I was inspired to try to write my own spy novel, borrowing my dad's typewriter. I wrote one page.

Looking back, Diamonds Are Forever is somewhere in the middle of the quality of Bond films, and I'd say it was the worst Sean Connery made in the role. I dutifully saw all the Bond movies as they came out, with Roger Moore, and while I enjoyed them, when I saw his first five-film run as Bond: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, I realized that he is and always will be the best to play the character.

He had a problematic time with it, as many actors do when they play a role several times, like Leonard Nimoy with Spock Connery quit the role twice, only to come back twice (Diamonds Are Forever was the first comeback, and the impishly titled Never Say Never Again was his seventh and last). I'm sure he wanted to be recognized as an actor who could do more than play Bond, and he did, as he was a very busy actor during the 70s and 80s and worked with top directors. 

Connery's first starring role after playing Bond was in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie, and he would go on to make films for Sidney Lumet (Murder On The Orient Express) and John Huston (the highly entertaining The Man Who Would Be King). He made some cult films, like Highlander and Zardoz (he might regret that one, if only for the costume_ In 1988 he won an Oscar for his role as a tough cop in The Untouchables, which must have been very satisfying for him. The great scene he did with Kevin Costner explaining "the Chicago way" is a classic. He was also Indiana Jones' father in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, and his only foray into comic book films was one of his last, the regrettable League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which flopped so badly that Connery retired afterward.

The camera loved Connery. That first moment, pictured above, when he says, "My name is Bond, James Bond," was enough to make him a star. He benefits because those first five Bond films are the best, capturing the zeitgeist of the '60s with the girls and the gadgets. Other Bonds have been respectable--I put Daniel Craig second, as his Bond films have given a psychological profile to the character that Connery or Moore never had to play. But Connery, with his roguish Scottish accent, suave behavior, and penetrating gaze, made him the spy we either wanted to be or sleep with. Could anyone else have pulled off that scene in Goldfinger when he pulls of a wetsuit to reveal he's wearing a white tuxedo?