Sean Connery, or Thomas Sean Connery to give him his full name, is one of the best-known actors to come out of
Scotland (if not the only one). Generally acknowledged to be the best actor to portray
Ian Fleming's
James Bond, he was the one who kick-started Bondmania by appearing the first film
Dr No. He went on to make
From Russia With Love,
Goldfinger,
Thunderball and
You Only Live Twice before bowing out of the series. After
George Lazenby took over the role for one film,
On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which was disastrous, Connery reprised the role for
Diamonds Are Forever. He did, it has to be said, look a little too
old for the part, however.
Roger Moore took over the role and Connery moved on.
He was lured back to the Bond franchise in 1983 with the production of Never Say Never Again, a rival Bond film to the official release of that year Octopussy. Connery has won an Oscar for his role as an Irish flatfoot in The Untouchables and is renowned for his inability to do accents. The Untouchables featured his Scottish-Irish accent, The Hunt for Red October featured his Scottish-Russian accent, and Rising Sun demonstrated his fine command of Scottish-Japanese.
Still in demand in the 90s and 2000s, Connery's biggest recent hits have been Entrapment and the utterly fabulous The Rock, to add to his impressive CV inclusions of The Name Of The Rose, Highlander and Zardoz, the last being one of the strangest films John Boorman ever made. Connery also slightly stumbled in the beautifully designed but plot-light The Avengers movie but is still regarded as probably the biggest film star that the UK has produced.