Though he’ll be immortalized as the first — and original — James Bond onscreen, Sean Connery wants people to remember him as just Being a Scot, which is the name of his autobiography.
The actor returned to his hometown in Britain yesterday to promote his book — which coincides with his 78th birthday –, appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with co-author, filmmaker and writer Murray Grigor.
Being a Scot tells of Connery’s pre-Bond life such as working as a milkman in Edenburgh’s Fountainbridge neighborhood, and then goes into an extended look of the culture in Scotland that includes the work of poet Robert Burns, novelist Sir Walter Scott and Mary, Queen of Scots.
“It will illuminate what Fountainbridge’s most famous former milkman thinks of many aspects of Scottish culture and life,” said festival director Catherine Lockerbie, “including sport, architecture, and of course the gothic tendency in Scots literature.”
Connery has gained international recognition when he became the first — and arguably by fans, the best — 007 in 1962’s Dr. No, and has continued playing Bond up until 1967’s You Only Live Twice, but returned to the role in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. Connery retired his license to kill for good as an older Bond in 1983’s Never Say Never Again with an then-unknown Kim Basinger.
His post-Bond career includes winning an Oscar as tough-as-nails Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables (1987), playing Jones, Sr. in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989), portraying a Russian submarine captain in the film adaptation of The Hunt For Red October (1990), and co-starring with Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment (1999).
Connery was named People Magazine‘s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1989, and is still known by female fans as an international sex symbol.
Living in the Bahamas, Connery stated that he won’t return to live in Scotland until its independence from the United Kingdom.
