Sean Connery

He was voted Best British Actor of all time in a poll for Sky TV [Feb 2005].

He declared in March 2003 that he would not return home until Scotland is an independent country. He believes this can still happen during his lifetime.

He turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings series (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)) because he didn't want to film down in New Zealand for 18 months, and could not understand the novels. The decision not to appear in the trilogy cost the actor an estimated $450 million.

He was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2000 Queen's Millennium Honors List for his services to Film Drama. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in an hour-long investiture ceremony at Edinburgh's Holyrood Palace in Scotland on July 5, 2000 accompanied by his wife, Micheline, and brother, Neil, were by his side.

In 1999, he was voted 'Sexiest Man of the Century' by People Magazine.

Whilst filming Playing by Heart (1998) he loved playing and even made a friendship with three and a half year old Piper Maru Anderson; daughter of an actress Gillian Anderson who played Meredith (a daughter of Sean's character).

His son, Jason and Jason's ex-wife, actress Mia Sara had a son, Dashiell Connery, in 1997.

In 1995, he was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#7).

He had radiation therapy for an undisclosed throat ailment in 1993. In a February 1995 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Connery said the treatment had been to remove benign tumors from his vocal chords after he found himself losing his voice while filming Rising Sun (1993).

He donated his salary from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) to charity.

In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century.

This arguably culminated in his greatest acclaim in 1988, when Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an Irish cop in The Untouchables (1987), stealing the thunder from the movie's principal star Kevin Costner. Connery was polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure".

He caused an uproar in a December 1987 interview with Barbara Walters in which he said it was OK to hit a woman if she deserved it or needed it to keep her in line. He had said similar things in a November 1965 interview with Playboy magazine.

He said in an interview that during the filming of Never Say Never Again (1983), he was taking martial arts lessons and in the process angered the instructor who in turn broke his wrist. Connery stayed with the wrist broken for a number of years thinking it was only a minor pain... the instructor was Steven Seagal.

He was offered the role of Robert Elliott by Brian De Palma in Dressed to Kill (1980) and was enthusiastic about it, but declined on account of previously acquired commitments.

He and his son, actor Jason Connery, have both played Robin Hood. Sean played an aging Robin Hood opposite Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian (1976). Jason played Robin Hood, AKA: Robert of Huntingdon, in the television series Robin Hood (1984). Jason also played Ian Fleming in the television movie The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1990). Fleming was the author of the James Bond novels that made Sean famous in 1962.

In 1975 he married Micheline Roquebrune and they stayed married, despite Sean's well-documented love affair with Lynsey de Paul in the late '80s. Sean had three stepchildren through his marriage to Micheline. He is also a grandfather.

The couple announced their separation in February 1971 and filed for divorce 2½ years later. Sean then dated Jill St. John, Lana Wood, Magda Konopka and Carole Mallory.

After and during the success of the Bond films, he maintained a successful career as an actor and has appeared in films, including Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Wind and the Lion (1975), Time Bandits (1981), Highlander (1986), The Name of the Rose (1986), Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Rising Sun (1993), The Rock (1996), Finding Forrester (2000) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (2003).

He played James Bond in six more films: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

Sean married actress Diane Cilento in 1962 and they had Sean's only child, Jason Connery, born on January 11, 1963.

The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he proved the doubters wrong, becoming one of the most notable film actors of his generation, with a host of great movies to his name.

In 1962 he appeared in The Longest Day (1962) with a host of other stars.

His big breakthrough came in 1962 when he landed the role of secret agent James Bond in Dr.

No (1962).

Connery received excellent notices for his starring role in Macbeth (1961) and longed to make a film of "The Scottish Play." His plans for a film in the early 1970s were terminated by the production of Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971).

He won the role of James Bond after producer Albert R. Broccoli attended a screening of Sean in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). He was particularly impressed with the fistfight Sean has with a village bully at the climax of the film. Cubby later had his wife, writer Dana Broccoli, see the film and she confirmed his sex appeal.

No Road Back (1957) was Sean's first major movie role, and it was followed by several made-for-TV movies such as ITV Television Playhouse: Anna Christie (1957), Macbeth (1961) and Anna Karenina (1961) as well as guest appearances on TV series, and also films such as Hell Drivers (1957), Another Time, Another Place (1958), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) and The Frightened City (1961).

In 1953, he entered the Mr. Universe contest, finishing third in the tall man's division.

"Thomas "Sean" Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphemia C. (Maclean), was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also had a brother, Neil Connery, a plasterer in Edinburgh. He was of Irish and Scottish descent. Before going into acting, Sean had many different jobs, such as a milkman, lorry driver, a laborer, artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, coffin polisher and bodybuilder. He also joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged because of medical problems. At the age of 23, he had a choice between becoming a professional footballer or an actor, and even though he showed much promise in the sport, he chose acting and said it was one of his more intelligent moves.

He was voted the 24th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.