Sir Thomas Sean Connery, best known for his portrayal of James Bond, has passed away. He was 90 years old. His son, Jason Connery said that Sir Connery who has been “unwell for some time” died peacefully in his sleep, while in the Bahamas, the BBC reported. Jason added that his father “had many of his family who could be in the Bahamas around him” when he died overnight.
Sean Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again), between 1962 and 1983.
In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His films also include Marnie (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Highlander (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Dragonheart (1996), The Rock (1996), and Finding Forrester (2000).
Born Thomas Sean Connery in 1930, the Scottish actor grew up in the tough Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh and left school at 14 to work as a milkman for the Co-op. In 1948, he joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged on medical grounds. He began bodybuilding aged 18, and got work as a life model, among many jobs, and entered the Mr Universe contest in 1953, though a failed attempt.
In 1998, Connery was voted by People magazine as both the “Sexiest Man Alive” and the “Sexiest Man of the Century” in 1999. In 2000, he was knighted by the Queen for services to film drama.
He was married twice: first to the Australian-born actor Diane Cilento between 1962 and 1973, and then to the French-Moroccan painter Micheline Roquebrune in 1975. He is survived by Roquebrune and his son by his first wife, the actor Jason Connery.