He's been called the sexiest man in the world, and, although his hair is now silver, Sean Connery's presence in
any room still causes female hearts to flutter.
HIS WRY, lopsided grin and glowing tan, Sean Connery looks even better at 69 than when he modelled swimwear almost 50 years ago. He exudes strength and confidence. Line him up against the boyish Leonardo Di Caprio, star of the movie Titanic, and there's no contest. Well, not for me anyway Sean's masculinity is, without doubt, the secret of his success with women fans. Micheline, his French-born wife, has had to accept their attention. She says, "I don't like seeing fans prodding him as if he's an object. But I see no point in getting jealous.They see a celluloid figure, I see the man":
Many believe he was the best James Bond ever He may have tried hard to shake off the sexy spy image by playing a wider variety of roles, but he will be for ever associated with the Ian Fleming hero. It may be 37 years since he uttered that ever-to-be-forgotten phrase: "The name's Bond, James Bond" but his interpretation has never been equalled. When Sean arrived in Scotland for the election in Spring, taking an active part on behalf of the Scottish National Party, one fan was adamant. "I don't care how he votes. All I want to know is when he'll play James Bond again".
In his latest movie Entrapment, he plays a veteran jewel thief and in real life is some 40 years older than his leading lady Catherine Zeta Jones, who plays an insurance investigator.At the Cannes film festival, escorted by Sean, Catherine looked stunning in a sequinned gown slashed to the waist, and said: `I have had a run of kissing men recently, but with Sean, on a scale of one to ten, he's 11 and a half. When you meet someone who you have admired for so many years, It is very worrying, because often you are disappointed. But when I first met Sean, he was as charming as I anticipated". Both stars agreed that the age difference between their characteirs was unimportant. Commenting on their love scenes, Sean remmarked with wry humour,"It was a difficult job to do, but somebody's got to do it: And she's a great kisser When met her at casting, we all agreed that for me, she was the girl".
Sean is not the only leading man who's been teamed up with ' youthful leadinig lady. Age-gaps between the stars are legendacy in Hollywood. In the 1944 movie Have and Have Not, a 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell for 44-year-old Humphrey Bogart, on , and off screen. Audrey Hepburn was 29 years younger than Bogart in Sabrina and 30 years younger than Fred Astaire in Funny Face.
SEAN CONNERY; resident of Bermuda and Marbella; is the most famous Scot in the world. The man his fellow countrymen
know as `Big Tam' was born in Fountainbridge (the name he adopted for his film company) near Edinburgh, the son
of a lorry driver and a charlady. They lived in a two-roomed tenement and shared a toilet with several other families
who lived alongside. School ended when Sean was 13 and a year later he had his own milkround and a horse and cart.
He earned £2 a week and added another five shillings with an evening paper round. What was left went into
a Post Office savings account.These careful habits have never left him
After a spell in the Navy, he played soccer semi-professionally and took up body building.
He even entered a 1950 Mr Universe contest. His good looks and muscular frame led him into the world of show-business
and, a year later, into the chorus line of the musical South Pacific. The show had a long run at London's Drury
Lane theatre - over 790 performances.
"I spent a lot of time alone in London," Sean recalls."I was living in a basement eating minestrone,
which would last me three days. In the winter I'd cycle up to the library in Chelsea because it was warm there,
and read and read". It was time to catch up on his education.
His reputation for litigation started when Sean found he'd lost more than $3million of his earnings and promptly took a former financial adviser to court. Betrayal dug deep but he never did get his money His cash problems began early on in his career. At the height of his Bond fame, as his marriage to his first wife, Australian actress Diane Cilento was breaking up, he found he'd signed movie contracts he didn't understand. "Dealing with this financial stuff was too much for me," he says. "It was back to education and I had to learn to understand it all myself". His present enormous wealth is proof that not only has he mastered it, but he's put some to good use in an Education Trust to help young Scots. What he can't accept is the current exhibitionism of some of today's pop stars. "I never trashed a hotel room or did drugs. I don't understand if you get caught in a fight, but to take it out on a room that implies some psychiatric disorder. The way I was brought up made me think about the person who has to clean up afterwards".
LOOKING BACK to more youthful times he admitted, "I did smoke pot a few times but nothing else. I would never
inject. I'm too fond of the drink. At times I can go two weeks or more without it, but then I'm quite enthusiastic
to get back to the taste again". Sean's status north of the border is now much more than that of a successful
movie star. Despite his long exile he remains Scotland's favourite son. He can look back on a career that includes
an Oscar (Best Supporting Actor in 1987 for the film The Untouchables) but he says his greatest moment was receiving
the freedom of the city of Edinburgh. The Usher Hall was packed with ordinary folk there to welcome him. He said
a few words in his inimitable gruff drawl and brought the house down. "Good on you Tam; came a voice from
the back and the crowd erupted.Sean Connery was back home.
