James Bond (Sean Connery)

James Bond
Sean Connery as James Bond 007.Added by Gram123Connery is well known to audiences around the world for his role as James Bond. He first appeared as agent 007 in Dr. No (1962) and subsequently played Bond in several sequels. Connery was discovered by Harry Saltzman after numerous names as possible contenders for Bond were thrown or ruled out, including Roger Moore, David Niven, Cary Grant, and many others. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond pays tribute to Connery in his 1963 novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service by stating that 007's surname as well as his father, was Scottish. Ironically, Fleming reportedly did not like the casting of Connery on the grounds that the stocky, 6'2" Scotsman was too "unrefined", but with some tutelage from director Terence Young, Connery won Fleming over. Young helped to smooth over Connery's rough and tumble edges while utilizing his imposing physicality yet amazingly graceful, cat-like movements during action sequences.
 * From Russia with Love (1963)
 * Goldfinger (1964)
 * Thunderball (1965)
 * You Only Live Twice (1967)007Connery.jpg
 * Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
 * Never Say Never Again (1983) (unofficial)

Connery's favorite Bond was From Russia with Love, one of the most critically acclaimed films in the series. He confirmed it in a 2002 interview with Sam Donaldson for ABCNews.com. (American Movie Classics erroneously listed Thunderball as Connery's favorite during its recent Bond retrospectives.)

In 1967 Connery quit the role of Bond, having grown tired of the repetitive plots, lack of character development and the general public's demands on him and his privacy (as well as fearing typecasting), which led to Albert R. Broccoli hiring George Lazenby to continue the film franchise in the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. After the film's release, however, Lazenby backed out of a seven-film contract. Broccoli again asked Connery to return to the role and paid him $1.25 million plus 12.5% of the film's profits, or about $6 million total to do so, at the time the highest salary of any actor. Connery returned one final official time in 1971 to make Diamonds Are Forever, quitting the role shortly after release.

Due to, and at the height of, an ongoing legal battle between Broccoli's EON Productions and Kevin McClory (co-writer of Thunderball), McClory was allowed to create a remake of Thunderball after a 10-year span after the release of Thunderball. In the late 1970s McClory teamed with Connery to write an original James Bond film. The project never got off the ground due to further lawsuits brought about by United Artists; however, in 1983 Connery teamed with McClory again to play the role of secret agent James Bond 007 for the seventh and final time in the unofficial film and remake Never Say Never Again. The title of the film has long believed to have derived from Connery's comments after the release of Diamonds Are Forever who, after filming it, claimed he would never play James Bond again. (For the legal battle see the controversy of Thunderball)

Connery returned to the role once more in 2005, providing the voice and likeness of James Bond for the video game adaptation of From Russia with Love.

According to director Sam Mendes, the idea of approaching Connery to portray the part of Kincade in the 2012 film Skyfall was very briefly considered. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Mendes noted that there "was a very brief flirtation with that thought, but it was never going to happen, because I thought it would distract.

Over 40 years since he first played the role, Connery is still widely regarded as the definitive cinematic incarnation of James Bond, despite credible interpretations of the character by the likes of Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, and what many believe to be a more authentic literary performance by Timothy Dalton. Connery's own feelings on Bond in interviews has run the gamut from bitter resentment to great fondness. At one point he joked he hated Bond so much that he'd have killed him, but he has also stated that he never hated Bond, he merely wanted to pursue other roles.

Certainly, when the James Bond series was at its peak in the mid-1960s, his association with the 007 image was so intense that fine performances in his non-Bond films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie and Sidney Lumet's The Hill, were being virtually ignored at the time. When asked if he'd ever escape the identification, he replied "It's with me till I go in the box." At another point, he stated that he still cared about the future of the character and franchise, having been associated with the icon for too long not to care, and that all Bond films had their good points.