There will never be another Bond like Sean Connery

“The name is Bond, James Bond.”  No one said the iconic line quite like the Scottish  superstar Sean Connery. With due respects to Daniel Craig—and I am  sure he will agree with me—there never be another Bond like Sean, a Bond who bonded with the audience like no other.

Sean Connery first played James Bond in 1962  in Dr  No. He went on  to play the role in  seven subsequent  films all mega-hits. As dry as the martini Bond enjoyed, Connery’s  007 was a tour de force of comic book heroism replete with set pieces and  choreographed stunts which he carried off with a Scottish virility.

The wenches were swooning. But Sean was sick of it. He confessed dealing with the  popularity that  Bond  got him  was  a bit of a nightmare. He wanted out. In  1971  he did  what he thought  was  going to be his last Bond  film Diamonds  Are Forever.  Thereafter he  proceeded  to do some of  his most unforgettable  roles  and performances  in  films  like  The Wind  & The  Lion, The Man  Who Would  Be King and most notably Robin & Marian , a gentle  elegiac reworking  of  the  Robinhood myth  for which  Connery personally  coaxed the mythic Audrey  Hebpurn out  of retirement.

Robin & Marian ranks as Connery’s career-best performance. A character in  the  film says , ‘He(Robin Hood) Has become  a legend. Have you ever tried to fight a legend?’   Robin  & Marian was  like one  legend  playing another. Actually it was  more than that: it was  one legend Sean Connery trapped in  another legend James Bond, playing a third (Robin Hood).

Several  masterly performances in  semi-classics  like The Name Of The  Rose (where Connery  was magnificent as a  priest)  and the gangster epic The Untouchables (which won him  an Oscar for  Best Supporting Actor) followed. But Connery  was not done with Bond as  yet. In  1983 he returned as Bond for the last time in Never Say Never Again.

The scars of  being permanently typecast never left  Sean Connery’s career. In  spite  of  many magnificent performances outside Bond-age, Connery remained  for all practical purposes, James Bond in  the public mind. He hated being reminded  of it.And why should he  not? When he proved  himself a  versatile actor  many times over?

His last full-length feature-film  appearance  was  in 2003 in  Stephen Norrington’s  The League Of Extrordinary Gentleman, an extraordinarily awful film where our own Naseeruddin Shah got to  share screen space with Connery.  The film and  its box office  disaster left Sean deeply embittered. He never returned  to  a full-length role, moved to Spain to a life  of amplified luxury with his  second wife  Micheline Roquebrune. They were together till his  death on October 30 at  90.

A  life well -lived,  a career that spanned  generations and a role that made him a household name, Sean Connery couldn’t have asked for  more.