Sean Connery became a worldwide superstar through his acting. Not least because of his legendary performance as 007 in several of the James Bond films, including the series’ very first film.
The Scottish actor passed away in 2020, at age 90. The world mourned the loss of the actor, father, and grandfather. And mostly, his widow Micheline Roquebrune, to whom Connery was married for 45 years.
Connery’s life was truly magnificent, and it sure is pretty unique to stay married for 45 years, especially in the world of show business. This is all you need to know about Sean Connery’s life and love story with his wife.
On August 25, 1930, Sean Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother worked as a cleaning woman, and his father as a factory worker.
Connery grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood of Edinburgh, which some would call a “slum.” He decided to quit school to help the family with money in his early teenage years. His mother worked as a cleaning lady and his father was a truck driver. Sean delivered milk from a local dairy and earned one pound a week.
“We were very poor,” he once said of his childhood. “But I never knew how poor because that’s how everyone was there.”
At age 17, Connery was drafted into the Royal Navy. However, just three years later, he had to leave. Sean had gotten a serious case of ulcers – a duodenal ulcer, which had affected several males across his family’s generation – and he once again returned to Scotland and Edinburgh.
Once home, Sean Connery started working many odd jobs, including lifeguard, laying bricks, shoveling coal, and posing as a model for the Edinburgh Art School. He also worked as a polisher at a coffin factory – and since he was both broke and homeless, Sean Connery decided to sleep at his workplace.
At that time, Connery didn’t go by “Sean” but by his real first name, Tom.
“He wasn’t Sean Connery then – we all knew him as Tom,” his old colleague Tommy Wark told The Scotsman in 2005. “I was on the joinery side, and he worked with two women from Craigmillar who did the polishing of the caskets.
“He came there to start work about 1950 and had nowhere to stay. I know he spent a few nights sleeping in a coffin just after he started,” Wark added.
After some time, Sean Connery finally saved some money to put into his other significant interest. He managed to become a member of the Dunedin Weightlifting Club.
“It was not so much to be fit but to look good for the girls,” Connery said, per Biography.
Sure, the ladies were impressed – but his fellow friends at the gym were also stunned. In fact, they decided to nominate Sean Connery for a Mr. Universe contest, which became a critical moment in his future acting career.
In 1953, he traveled to London from Edinburgh, where he was to attend the competition. The then 23-year-old introduced himself as “Mr. Scotland,” and the judges were impressed.
Connery placed third in the competition. Then, however, something more important than winning happened. At the Mr. Universe competition, local casting directors saw Connery and gave him a new type of job.
He landed his first-ever job as a chorus spot in a London-based touring company, and soon after, Connery appeared in the musical South Pacific.
“I didn’t have a voice, couldn’t dance,” Sean Connery said of his performance. “But I could look good standing there.”
It didn’t take long before Sean Connery’s real acting career started. He was promoted to a proper role within the touring company and began calling himself Sean. Why? It reminded him of the movie cowboy “Shane.”
He got minor roles in movies and television. But casting directors wanted him to do one big thing; His rough Scottish accent was very hard to understand, and he was urged to take elocution lessons.
Every actor dreams about getting their big breakthrough, but no one knows beforehand when it will appear.
In Sean Connery’s case, he had acted in films and television for about ten years before his big breakthrough. But not only did it make him very famous. It also put his name in the history books for all future, as he appeared in the first-ever James Bond film, Dr. No, as James Bond himself.
Many characters in the annals of film history will be remembered forever. However, one of the most famous is James Bond, even among those who haven’t seen the films. The legendary secret agent first appeared in Ian Fleming’s book Casino Royale, released in 1953, and since then, the fascination with 007 has been never-ending.
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