Sean Connery wasn’t Ian Fleming’s first choice for James Bond
If it wasn’t for a twist of fate, Sean Connery wouldn’t have originated cinema’s most famous spy. He wasn’t Ian Fleming’s first choice.
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“Bond, James Bond.”
From the moment Sean Connery uttered those immortal words, everyone would come to associate the Scotsman with the world’s most famous fictional spy, a debonair man who could disarm you with a witty quip.
But Connery, who died this weekend at the age of 90, was almost not the man with the licence to kill.
Connery was not James Bond author Ian Fleming’s first choice for the role – that was Irish actor Richard Todd.
Fleming wanted Todd for Dr No, the movie that introduced the iconic character to moviegoing audiences the world over. However, a scheduling conflict prevented him from taking on the role.
At the time, Todd was best known for his role in 1955 film The Dam Busters, as real-life British air force bomber pilot Guy Gibson. Todd himself was a paratrooper in World War II during the D-Day invasion in Normandy. Todd died in 2009.
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Higher-profile stars Richard Burton and Cary Grant were also said to have been offered the role of Bond, but both turned it down.
Connery was offered the role despite Fleming’s reticence. Fleming was to have said of Connery’s casting, “He’s not what I envisioned of James Bond looks, I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stuntman”.
Producer Albert Broccoli’s wife Dana was apparently key in convincing the team to take a chance on Connery.
Broccoli’s Eon Productions still holds the rights to the Bond films, with daughter Barbara now in charge. There have been 25 official Bond films, including No Time To Die, which has yet to be released after two scheduling delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Connery was only 31 years old when he filmed his first Bond movie, Dr No. He told IndieWire in 2005, in a rare Bond-related interview, “They were exciting and funny and had good stories and pretty girls and intriguing locations, and it didn’t take anything for granted”.
He added: “It was refreshing and had a certain kind of style, although it didn’t cost anything because we only had a million to make the picture.”
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Connery made five Bond movies – Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice – before stepping away when he’d tired of the franchise.
Australian actor George Lazenby took over in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and despite being offered a seven-picture contract, he walked away after one.
For the next film, Diamonds Are Forever in 1971, the producers considered John Gavin, Burt Reynolds and Adam West while Michael Gambon had turned it down. Connery was enticed back with a salary of £1.25 million, pretty decent money at the time.
Diamonds Are Forever would be Connery’s final official Bond movie although he did reprise the character in the non-canonical Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball and produced by Jack Schwartzman who had retained the screen rights to the novel after a legal battle.
The title is a reference to Connery’s statement in the past that he wouldn’t play Bond again.
When the film was released in 1983, Connery was 52 years old, a fact referenced within the movie. He was still three years younger than Roger Moore who at the time was on his final two Eon-produced Bond films.
Connery’s favourite Bond movie was Goldfinger.
The Bond movies are available to stream on Stan
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Originally published as Sean Connery wasn’t Ian Fleming’s first choice for James Bond