What can one say about the late Sean Connery? He was the absolute movie star male icon. Elegant but fierce. Cultured but street. A womanizer but a gentleman. Worldly but English in every way. He was truly what every man wanted to be in the persona of James Bond. In total command of himself and every situation. Cool. Able to adapt to any situation because he was prepared in every way. Able to reject temptation but also indulge in it for his own pleasure. And yet we saw the vulnerability that was the irony of all his female conquests; he had been hurt by love and walked away from it. He also did not want to expose a woman to the threat of being used as way to get at him. His weakness for women was his greatest strength; he lusted after them but was able to walk away because of his duty for Queen and country. But what a lonely existence. And what a fearful existence; unable to trust anyone, yet he protected himself so naturally that you would never think he gave it a second thought. It was the life he lived. A spy. Beyond the mundane. In the knowing of evil and good. And he was good though his moral failings were substantial. In the end, his Machiavellian sense of means to an end taught us that evil is to be given no quarter. And the Deguello always sounded in the wonderful soundtrack that accompanied his entrance into the room; no quarter for a beautiful woman and no quarter for a Dr. No. For he was Bond. James Bond. And Sean Connery was that man for all of us. The presence of Sean Connery in the guise of James Bond made us all feel sophisticated and worldly. I am saddened that this man and era has passed.
John Huston wanted to cast Redford and Newman in The Man Who Would Be King. Newman told him to get Caine and Connery and that casting yielded a masterpiece. Some think him the best Bond but I think of him as the best Darby O’Gill
Watching Goldfinger as I text this message. Sean one of my all time favs.. scene now in Goldfinger is assasin chasing him in the Alps in a white 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible. RIP .
