The sad death of Sean Connery it leaves us without one of the greatest actors that the world of cinema has given us. After hearing the news, Michael Bay shared a curious story in his heartfelt tribute to the interpreter of ‘La Roca’ and we wanted to recover other 13 incredible anecdotes of the mythical actor that you may know us. We leave you with them:
It could be Mister Universe
Sean Connery competed in Mister Universe in 1953. There is no total unanimity on how he did, but the most widespread version is that he was in third position in the category in which he participated. Of course, his passion for this world did not last long because he did not like the methods of the Americans, for whom pure muscle prevailed, refusing athletic activity, something more to Connery’s taste.
He managed to defeat six members of the violent criminal gang Valdor
When he was working in Edinburgh in a theater, six members of the violent Valdor criminal gang tried to steal his jacket, but he managed to get rid of all of them. Later they counterattacked to make things clear to him, but he managed to hit the heads of two of them against each other and from then on they respected him and did not mess with him again.
Decided to be an actor after rejecting an offer from Manchester United
Connery received an offer from Sir Matt Busby worth £ 25 a week to join the ranks of Manchester United. It was very tempting, because the Scotsman loved football, but ended up rejecting it for the following reason: “I really wanted to accept it because I loved football, but I realized that the decline of a high-level footballer could reach 30 and I was already 23. I decided to be an actor, and that turned out to be one of my smartest decisions“.
He got the role of James Bond because of the way he moved
Apparently, Connery’s audition for James Bond didn’t go particularly well and he would have run out of the role had it not been for the producer’s wife Cubby broccoli She told her husband that she had seen him leaving for his car and that he “moves like a panther.” That convinced him to give the actor another chance and he knew how to take advantage of it.
Almost got eaten by a shark
Shooting a scene in ‘Operation Thunder’, his fourth adventure as James Bond, with sharks, what protected Connery from the animals did not fulfill its function and he was close to being eaten by one of them. Terence young, director of the film, remembers that he included some moment in the same in which the terror that can be seen in the actor’s expression is genuine.
He liked to write poetry
Connery lived in the house of John boorman during the filming of ‘Zardoz’ and the director recalled in the audio commentary of the domestic edition of the film that the actor liked to retire to his room every night to write poetry, although we will hardly find proof of this because: “He has never taught his poetry to me or anyone else that I know, but he writes poetry“.
Steven Seagal broke her wrist in preparation for ‘Never Say Never Again’
Connery trained for the martial arts scenes of ‘Never Say Never Again’ with a then unknown Steven Seagal. The Scotsman asked Seagal to be tough on him, which led to him accidentally breaking his wrist. Mind you, Connery didn’t find out about it until years later, so it shouldn’t have been that serious.
Made Richard Gere cry by asking him a question
Connery agreed with Richard Gere in the filming of ‘The first knight’ and one day he was so upset that he got mad at him for being late for filming and asked him where he had been. When the scene was finished, Gere went to his trailer, where he collapsed and began to cry. So unable was he to confront Connery that he sent his assistant to report his discomfort to the legendary Scottish actor.
He was involved in an urban plot in Marbella called the Goldfinger Case
Connery had a house in Marbella for several decades, but his love for the city was fading in the 90s due to the changes in it introduced under the mandate of Jesus Gil, whom the actor detested. He got so tired that he sold his seaside villa called Malibu and moved to the Bahamas.
The problem was that the sale of it gave rise to an illegal urban planning operation and money laundering that ended up splashing the mythical actor. Of course, he refused to testify for years and finally did so from the Bahamas in 2014 in which he denied all charges and also submitted to the jurisdiction of the Spanish court “in any way“in this case Goldfinger.
He stayed to live in Alcatraz while ‘The Rock’ was filmed
Apparently, the actor did not like having to do boat trips every day to go to Alcatraz, so he asked the producers to build him a cabin right there and they agreed to his request. Of course, something tells me that our concept of a cabin is very different from what Connery would have.
He was voted the sexiest man of the 20th century
Connery was always said to be a very attractive man, something that was recognized by People magazine with the title of sexiest man alive in 1989, but New Woman magazine went further in 1999 by being voted the sexiest man of the century by on top of tough competitors like Brad Pitt, Mel Gibson or Paul Newman
He lost nearly $ 500 million for turning down ‘The Lord of the Rings’
The fact that he refused to play both Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and Morpheus in ‘The Matrix’ because he did not understand the scripts is quite well known, but the case of the trilogy of Peter jackson it was especially painful on his pocketbook.
Apparently, they offered him a salary of 10 million dollars and 15% of the profits at the box office, which would have brought him an income of around $ 480 million.
He got killed with the director of ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’
Connery hated working on ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, ultimately his last live action movie. From delays for a troublesome shoot to his clashes with the director Stephen Norrington, who came to stop filming one day because a props item didn’t look good enough.
The actor acknowledged that he was not at all happy with the work of Norrington, who he said should have been locked up for crazy and that they should never have entrusted him with so much money. That experience ended up leading to his retirement because “i got tired of having to deal with idiots“.