I’ve been seeing and enjoying movies since I was a kid. And if there is one actor over the years I put up there as my hero it would be Sean Connery. He died recently at age 90 after a career in film that lasted close to 60 years.
He was best known for his role as British spy James Bond, 007, beginning with 1963’s ‘From Russia with Love’. Others included ‘Goldfinger’ (’64), ‘Thunderball’ (’65), ‘You Only Live Twice' (’67) and ‘Diamonds are Forever’ (’71). He was persuaded to come back in '83 for ‘Never Say Never Again’.
Others played the role including Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Let’s leave it there because I’d like to touch on Connery films other than the Bond stuff: ‘The Hunt for Red October’ (’90) being one of them.
In this he took on the role of a rogue Russian submarine captain opposite Alex Baldwin’s Jack Ryan who’s unenviable task was figuring out if the Russian is deciding to defect to America or hit its eastern shore with a nuclear device.
That same year ‘The Russia House’ by author John le Carre hit the screen with Connery recapturing his 007 persona by playing a small British publisher in what The New York Times labeled ‘a plausible real-world espionage plot with a murderer’s row of great character actors'.
Who could forget Sean Connery in ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ (’89) directed by Steven Spielberg? He stars, alongside Harrison Ford, playing his grumpy father as they light up the screen with their antics.
One of his outstanding performances came in ‘Robin and Marian' (’76), a role that captured my heart with him as Robin Hood returning from the Crusades to find Nottingham’s poor still suffering, the Merry Men scattered about and worse, Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn) living as a cast-aside nun.
Author’s comment: What I wouldn’t give to recapture the fun and emotions of these and other Sean Connery films. First by watching all the James Bond films – one after another - including those with Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, and others playing the title role. I’d throw in those other Connery movies, a few mentioned here, where he wasn’t James Bond. What an all-nighter!