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The death of Sean Connery, who shot to fame (in more ways than one) as superspy James Bond 007 in the 1960s in Dr. No, has been announced. Hailing from Edinburgh in his beloved Scotland, he started his career as a model and bodybuilder, before moving into acting, gathering experience in films like Darby O'Gill and the Little People and Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. But it was when he was hired as Bond that he became one of the most famous people in the world, the ultra-masculine, no nonsense agent at home in a suit as he was in a gadget-laden car (as in Goldfinger). He continued with the official series till You Only Live Twice, was coaxed back for Diamonds are Forever, and returned in an 80s unofficial Bond, Never Say Never Again.
Yet Connery was not one to rest on his laurels, and once Bond gave him the finances to make his own choices, he made consistently intriguing ones for at least two or three decades. He proved his dramatic ability in dramas like Hitchcock's Marnie, The Hill, A Fine Madness, The Anderson Tapes, The Offence, weirdo favourite Zardoz, cult Kipling adaptation The Man Who Would Be King, Robin and Marian, The First Great Train Robbery, Cuba, Outland, Time Bandits, Highlander, The Name of the Rose, winning an Oscar for De Palma's The Untouchables, one of his biggest non-Bond hits Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Hunt for Red October. The rest of his career enjoyed hits and flops alike, The Rock being one of the hits, until, never a man blessed with the sunniest of dispositions, he renounced Hollywood and retired. But as a star who defined one of the greatest heroes in cinema, he remains legendary. |
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