A couple of weeks back we were watching the James Bond movie “Thunderball”, starring Sir Sean Connery. Yesterday, the best actor to ever portray the James Bond character on screen, passed away, at Nassau, the same location that the movie Thunderball was shot at.
Thunderball was made in 1965 when movie making was not as advanced as it is now and the difficult ocean scenes have been shot beautifully. I have loved Sir Sean Connery as James Bond… everyone else who has played the role is a distant second. He made even the objectionable scenes look decent with his demeanour. While women are just arm and eye candy in all James Bond movies, Sir Sean Connery always gave the vibes of being a gentleman.
I read in some of the obituaries that he came from a very humble background and was a high school dropout who never went to college. That he became a legendary actor speaks volumes about his talent and perseverance. He learnt everything through experience !
Most of us tend to forget all the other movies he acted in and only focus on his role as James Bond. I liked him in the Indiana Jones series and the movie “Entrapment” is a huge favourite of mine. Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones make a great pair onscreen. Finding Forrester is another classic Sean Connery movie where he plays a reclusive author who helps the young protagonist to hone his writing skills.
Sean Connery as Ramius in The Hunt for Red October was a class apart. Likewise, I think the role of John Mason in The Rock was written with Sean Connery in mind… Scottish man imprisoned in the US and the only one to escape Alcatraz :).
This year two favourite people connected to the movie world have gone … SPB and now Sean Connery. I still can’t get over the fact that SP Balasubramaniam is no more and will not sing another song in that amazing voice of his. Sir Sean Connery, lived a full life, so even though I will miss him, its with the knowledge that his life wasn’t cut short like SPB’s :(.
RIP Sir Connery. You will be missed and thanks for bringing James Bond alive. You live on.