One of the most famous actors of all time, Sean Connery, has died. He was 90 years old. A cause of death has not been revealed but his family has confirmed his passing.
Born in Edinburgh, Connery grew up working class – bricklaying, delivering milk, serving in the Royal Navy, truck driver, lifeguard, art model and even competing in the Mr Universe championships.
But the acting bug bit him and soon made a name for himself on stage and then on screen with small parts in a variety of films from “Lilacs in the Spring” to “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” before he landed the role of James Bond in 1962’s first Bond feature “Dr. No”.
Connery reprised the role five more times in “From Russia with Love,” “Goldfinger,” “Thunderball,” “You Only Live Twice” and “Diamonds are Forever” – though he played an unofficial version of the part as well years later in “Never Say Never Again”.
Connery’s career kept on long after Bond with films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” the Rudyard Kipling adaptation “The Man Who Would Be King,” a suspect in Sidney Lumet’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” the benevolent King Agamemnon in Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits,” a loincloth hero in the outright weird sci-fi tale “Zardoz,” a space marshal in “Outland,” the scene stealing Ramirez in “Highlander,” as an Arab chief in John Milius’s “The Wind and the Lion,” as Robin Hood in “Robin and Marian” and later King Richard in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” “an award-winning turn in the adaptation of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose,” and an Oscar winning supporting role in Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables”.
In the late 1980s and 1990s he earned new fans as Henry Jones in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” as Russian sub captain Ramius in the film version of Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October,” was King Arthur in “First Knight,” led John McTiernan’s rainforest-set “Medicine Man,” and was in thrillers like the Crichton adaptation “Rising Sun,” the sweaty “Just Cause,” “The Russia House” and “The Presidio” before becoming a studio staple with movies like “The Rock,” “DragonHeart,” “The Avengers,” “Finding Forrester” and “Entrapment”.
Connery has mostly been retired from Hollywood for the past two decades, his last on screen appearance being as adventurer Allan Quatermain in 2003’s poorly received adaptation of Alan Moore’s celebrated comic “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.
Connery was knighted by the Queen at Holyrood Palace in 2000.
Source: BBC News
