This has been a very tough
year for everybody.
The virus has destroyed the year, and made everything putrid.
And we have lost so many people this year, thousands upon thousands from the virus and so many others from other things, including the ravages of time.
I lost my father this year, which, of course, is the worst loss of them all for me.
But we have also lost many prominent people, personalities who have touched our lives in one way or another, and we lost one such person just the other day when the ravages of time took Sean Connery away from us.
We lost Connery on Halloween at the age of 90, so he lived a long and fruitful life, But now it is coming out that in his final years, he suffered from dementia, which probably made those last years pretty much impossible for this family.
And for him personally, it must have been torture.
Connery was an actor’s actor, playing many roles over a career that stretched from the 1950s to almost the current time, but while he won an Oscar for his role in the film “The Untouchables,” it was one of the few times that an actor had an Oscar-winning role that did not define him.
I mean, Sean Connery was James Bond---and I mean, he WAS James Bond … shaken but not stirred.
From “Dr. No” to his final Bond film, “Never Say Never Again,” Connery was simply the only Bond that mattered.
He was not the first actor to play James Bond in mass media—that honor went to Barry Nelson, the genial American actor who portrayed the character in a TV performance in the early 1950s.
But less than 10 years later, Ian Fleming’s character came to the movies, to the big screen, and emerging Scottish actor Sean Connery—who had been in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie”--was chosen to play Bond in the first Bond film, “Dr. No,” and the rest is history.
The Welsh actor took the part and ran with it, and James Bond became an icon of the 1960s, a rugged individualist who bent his orders as a spy to his own satisfaction, being the good guy, getting the bad guys, all the while bedding one beautiful woman after another.
He was a Superman for the 1960s, when everything we had known was bent upside down and backwards, and while Superman could win out over every bad guy thrown at him, James Bond not only could do that, but he could do it all in a tuxedo with barely one hair on his head moving out of place.
“Dr. No” was such a success, mainly due to Connery and his portrayal of the character as a man’s man, that one sequel after another followed, such as “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball,” with each succeeding movie becoming more outlandish than the one preceding it.
And Connery knew he WAS Bona, and while he tired of the role, he was in the catbird’s seat as far as what he could demand from the role monetarily. And he knew that even though he WAS Bond, he couldn’t be Bond forever.
After the first six films as Bond—including the aforementioned films plus “From Russia With Love,” “You Only Live Twice,” and “Diamonds Are Forever,” he finally left the role that was him and moved on in 1971, leaving the role to others to take on (he had left the role for one film in between, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” starring Connery lookalike George Lazenby, in 1969).
(And yes, let’s not forget David Niven’s portrayal of the character in the original “Casino Royale” in 1967, but that wasn’t an official James Bond performance, so to speak, but yes, Niven was Sir James Bond while Connery was still going strong as Bond in the formal series’ films.)
You could say that he never looked back, but that would not be true. While he plied his trade in numerous other films from 1971 to 1983—including “The Man Who Would Be King,” the Bond itch was still there, and in 1983, he came back as an older Bond in “Never Say Never Again,” a film that was downplayed by a lot of people but which I liked. I think I liked it for the very reason that Connery took on the role—because it showed not the young, omnipotent Bond, but an older Bond, a more real Bond, who showed lots of aches and pains from all the spying he had done over the years—and probably all of the bedding he did, too.
Connery never returned to Bond after that, leaving the role to Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig and their own interpretations of who Bond was. But since Connery WAS Bond, while those portrayals were interesting—as was Lazenby’s earlier on—they weren’t Connery, and they were all sort of always going to be second best to Connery’s Bond.
In 1986, Connery finally won the grand prize, and it had nothing to do with James Bond—he won an Oscar for “The Untouchables,” but funny, most people would say that his best on-screen portrayal was that of James Bond, a role that the Academy would never recognize for how brilliant he was in a role that he would define forever.
His Oscar win gave him ammunition for many other films later in his career, including “The Hunt For Red October,” and in 2006, he decided that he had had enough, and retired, but he would pop up from time to time on TV and movies here and there, so he probably never formally retired until his illness got the best of him.
And in 2000, he was knighted, and became Sir Sean Connery—not Sir James Bond, but let’s be honest about it, they were one and the same.
When he passed away, his son, Jason Connery, stated that his father had not been well for some time, and it just came out over the weekend that he had dementia, which was a sad ending for such a vigorous person.
Connery had his faults—he never took back his belief that woman could be hit by their husbands, one of the reasons why his first marriage failed—but Connery was such a larger than life personality that he could state his beliefs and even if they were wrong, come up unscarred.
I am a huge James Bond fan, always have been, and when I heard that Connery had died, I felt that another piece of my life—and my childhood—had been taken from me.
I wonder how many millions of other people thought the exact same thing.
R.I.P.
The virus has destroyed the year, and made everything putrid.
And we have lost so many people this year, thousands upon thousands from the virus and so many others from other things, including the ravages of time.
I lost my father this year, which, of course, is the worst loss of them all for me.
But we have also lost many prominent people, personalities who have touched our lives in one way or another, and we lost one such person just the other day when the ravages of time took Sean Connery away from us.
We lost Connery on Halloween at the age of 90, so he lived a long and fruitful life, But now it is coming out that in his final years, he suffered from dementia, which probably made those last years pretty much impossible for this family.
And for him personally, it must have been torture.
Connery was an actor’s actor, playing many roles over a career that stretched from the 1950s to almost the current time, but while he won an Oscar for his role in the film “The Untouchables,” it was one of the few times that an actor had an Oscar-winning role that did not define him.
I mean, Sean Connery was James Bond---and I mean, he WAS James Bond … shaken but not stirred.
From “Dr. No” to his final Bond film, “Never Say Never Again,” Connery was simply the only Bond that mattered.
He was not the first actor to play James Bond in mass media—that honor went to Barry Nelson, the genial American actor who portrayed the character in a TV performance in the early 1950s.
But less than 10 years later, Ian Fleming’s character came to the movies, to the big screen, and emerging Scottish actor Sean Connery—who had been in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie”--was chosen to play Bond in the first Bond film, “Dr. No,” and the rest is history.
The Welsh actor took the part and ran with it, and James Bond became an icon of the 1960s, a rugged individualist who bent his orders as a spy to his own satisfaction, being the good guy, getting the bad guys, all the while bedding one beautiful woman after another.
He was a Superman for the 1960s, when everything we had known was bent upside down and backwards, and while Superman could win out over every bad guy thrown at him, James Bond not only could do that, but he could do it all in a tuxedo with barely one hair on his head moving out of place.
“Dr. No” was such a success, mainly due to Connery and his portrayal of the character as a man’s man, that one sequel after another followed, such as “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball,” with each succeeding movie becoming more outlandish than the one preceding it.
And Connery knew he WAS Bona, and while he tired of the role, he was in the catbird’s seat as far as what he could demand from the role monetarily. And he knew that even though he WAS Bond, he couldn’t be Bond forever.
After the first six films as Bond—including the aforementioned films plus “From Russia With Love,” “You Only Live Twice,” and “Diamonds Are Forever,” he finally left the role that was him and moved on in 1971, leaving the role to others to take on (he had left the role for one film in between, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” starring Connery lookalike George Lazenby, in 1969).
(And yes, let’s not forget David Niven’s portrayal of the character in the original “Casino Royale” in 1967, but that wasn’t an official James Bond performance, so to speak, but yes, Niven was Sir James Bond while Connery was still going strong as Bond in the formal series’ films.)
You could say that he never looked back, but that would not be true. While he plied his trade in numerous other films from 1971 to 1983—including “The Man Who Would Be King,” the Bond itch was still there, and in 1983, he came back as an older Bond in “Never Say Never Again,” a film that was downplayed by a lot of people but which I liked. I think I liked it for the very reason that Connery took on the role—because it showed not the young, omnipotent Bond, but an older Bond, a more real Bond, who showed lots of aches and pains from all the spying he had done over the years—and probably all of the bedding he did, too.
Connery never returned to Bond after that, leaving the role to Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig and their own interpretations of who Bond was. But since Connery WAS Bond, while those portrayals were interesting—as was Lazenby’s earlier on—they weren’t Connery, and they were all sort of always going to be second best to Connery’s Bond.
In 1986, Connery finally won the grand prize, and it had nothing to do with James Bond—he won an Oscar for “The Untouchables,” but funny, most people would say that his best on-screen portrayal was that of James Bond, a role that the Academy would never recognize for how brilliant he was in a role that he would define forever.
His Oscar win gave him ammunition for many other films later in his career, including “The Hunt For Red October,” and in 2006, he decided that he had had enough, and retired, but he would pop up from time to time on TV and movies here and there, so he probably never formally retired until his illness got the best of him.
And in 2000, he was knighted, and became Sir Sean Connery—not Sir James Bond, but let’s be honest about it, they were one and the same.
When he passed away, his son, Jason Connery, stated that his father had not been well for some time, and it just came out over the weekend that he had dementia, which was a sad ending for such a vigorous person.
Connery had his faults—he never took back his belief that woman could be hit by their husbands, one of the reasons why his first marriage failed—but Connery was such a larger than life personality that he could state his beliefs and even if they were wrong, come up unscarred.
I am a huge James Bond fan, always have been, and when I heard that Connery had died, I felt that another piece of my life—and my childhood—had been taken from me.
I wonder how many millions of other people thought the exact same thing.
R.I.P.
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