before he was James Bond. You know, like the
ultimate symbol of cinematic sophistication.
Right, the guy in the tailored tuxedo. Exactly.
Before all of that, Sean Connery actually polished
coffins for a living. And we can talk about a
contrast, right? It is wild. So welcome to the
Deep Dive. We are working through a massive stack
of source material today. We really are. We've
got this comprehensive encyclopedic biography
of Sir Thomas Sean Connery. And our mission for
you today is to get past that Hollywood myth
we're stripping off the tuxedo. Yeah, we're looking
at the actual man underneath all that glamour.
Because we want to explore how a working -class
Scottish milkman completely redefined modern
masculinity. And also how he handled the... the
psychological crush of just unimaginable global
fame. Right. And most importantly, what his life
teaches us about the ultimate power move, which
is, you know, knowing exactly when to walk away.
Well, absolutely. That is the core of his story.
OK, let's unpack this, because if you look closely
at Connery's real life, it was driven by a level
of gritty calculation that puts literally any
spy thriller to shame. It absolutely does. I
mean, when people watch Connery on screen, they
assume that effortless, imposing confidence was
just I don't know, innate. Like he was born holding
a martini glass or something. Exactly. But charisma
of that magnitude? It isn't born. It's forged.
Oh, for sure. To understand the polished icon,
you really have to understand the underlying
mechanics of how he learned to navigate the world.
And in his case, it started with grueling, unglamorous
physical labor. Right. His origins are about
as blue collar as it gets. He was born in Edinburgh
in 1930. To a cleaning woman and a factory worker.
Yep. He grew up in this block of flats that literally
doesn't even exist anymore. And the guy was hustling
from day one. I mean, he was a milkman. Which
is where he learned the streets of Edinburgh.
Yeah. He actually knew the streets so well from
that job that decades later, during a film festival,
he was casually calling out every single street
name to his taxi driver. That is amazing. But
it wasn't just delivering milk. He was a lorry
driver. a lifeguard he modeled for the Edinburgh
College of Art. For, what was it, 15 shillings
an hour? Yeah, 15 shillings an hour. And yes,
as I mentioned, he literally polished wooden
coffins. What's really fascinating here is how
these specific jobs created his acting style.
How so? Well, he wasn't a theater kid. trained
in some posh academy to project his voice or
hit his marks. His education was entirely physical.
Right. He was doing manual labor. Exactly. When
you spend your formative years hauling heavy
milk grates, driving massive trucks, working
with your hands, your center of gravity actually
shifts. Oh, I see what you mean. You develop
a certain physical weight. and a quiet observation
of the people around you. So later, when he walks
into your room on camera, he doesn't have that
nervous energy of an actor trying to impress
you. Right. He has that grounded, heavy presence
of a man who knows exactly how much physical
space he takes up. Precisely. And he knew how
to defend that space, too. I mean, he joined
the Royal Navy at 16. Oh, yeah. That's where
he got his two famous tattoos. They weren't just,
like, random anchors or anything. They were these
deeply personal markers of his identity. One
said, Mom and Dad, and the other said, Scotland
forever. Which really tells you everything you
need to know about his priorities. Totally. But
he was actually discharged at 19 because of a
duodenal ulcer. Which apparently ran in his family,
kind of like a family curse. Yeah. But being
thrown back into civilian life just meant he
had to rely on that physical presence even more.
Exactly. So he turns to bodybuilding. He actually
ended up competing in the Mr. Universe contest
in 1953. Wait, Sean Connery was in Mr. Universe?
He was. But the underlying psychology here is
what really matters. The American bodybuilders
were beating him because they cared exclusively
about sheer muscle volume. Just getting as huge
as possible. Right. But Connery refused to stop
playing sports. He didn't want decorative muscle.
He wanted functional strength. He wanted agility.
Exactly. Which brings us to a massively defining
moment in his life. He was a phenomenal footballer.
Good enough that Matt Busby scouted him, right?
Yeah, the legendary manager of Manchester United.
Busby sees him at a match and offers him a contract
right on the spot. 25 pounds a week. Which, for
a working class guy in 1953, I mean, that is
a golden ticket out of poverty. It's life -changing
money. But Connery, who is just 23 years old
at the time, he turns it down. He calculates
that a footballer's career is essentially over
by the time they hit 30. So he decides acting
is a more intelligent move because it offers
longevity. You know, that decision right there
is the skeleton key to understanding Sean Connery.
Really? Why do you say that? Because most 23
-year -olds in his financial position would have
grabbed the cash without a second thought. Oh,
absolutely. I know I would have. Right. But Connery
was already thinking about his expiration date.
He was calculating his long -term leverage. And
that functional strength we talked about, it
gave him the confidence to make those bold calculations
because he knew he could physically hold his
own anywhere. It's like an RPG video game character
where he just maxed out his physical and survival
stats early on, you know? But he also had the
incredible strategic foresight to realize a sports
career has a hard expiration date. That's a great
way to put it. And that survival stat was definitely
maxed out. I mean, look at his hard man reputation
in Edinburgh. Oh, man, the Val D 'Or gang story.
Yes. OK, so he was targeted by the Val D 'Or
gang, which was one of the most notoriously violent
groups in the city. And they cornered him on
a balcony, right? 15 -foot high balcony. Now,
most people would run or just hand over their
wallet. But Connery grabs one guy by the throat,
another by the biceps, and physically cracks
their heads together. Just unbelievable. He literally
dismantled their leadership right on the spot.
And notice the mechanism there. He didn't try
to negotiate from a position of weakness. He
met a physical threat with overwhelming physical
dominance. It's pure animal instinct for survival.
And he took that exact same survival instinct
straight to Hollywood. Oh, the Lana Turner incident.
Yes. So it's 1957, he's filming a movie with
Lana Turner. Her boyfriend at the time was a
mobster named Johnny Scampanato. Who had ties
to Mickey Cohen, so this was a serious guy. Very
serious. Stompanato gets paranoid about a rumored
affair, storms onto the movie set, and actually
pulls a gun on Connery. On a live movie set?
Yeah. And Connery doesn't call for security.
He simply steps up, twists the gun out of Stompanato's
hand, and knocks him flat on his back. Wow. The
guy actually ended up getting deported back to
the US. Connery literally knocked out an armed
mobster between takes. So when we look at his
early career, his undeniable on -screen charisma.
It wasn't a performance. It was a byproduct of
literal survival. Yeah. He had faced down street
gangs and armed gangsters. Right. That raw, imposing
threat was real. And that is exactly what makes
his next career phase so brilliant. Because that
raw, brawling, working -class energy is about
to violently collide with the most aristocratic
upper -class character in British literature.
James Bond. The James Bond casting is just one
of the greatest cultural pivots of the 20th century.
And it almost didn't happen. Ian Fleming, the
guy who created Bond, he absolutely despised
the casting at first. Wait, really? He hated
it. Oh, he hated it. Fleming had written Bond
as this refined aristocratic commander. He looked
at this six foot two muscular Scottish brawler
and called him an overgrown stuntman. Ouch. Yeah.
Fleming thought he lacked the essential sophistication
the character demanded. But the producers, they
saw the raw danger Connery brought. They knew
you couldn't fake that kind of menace. They just
needed to package it. Which is where Terrence
Young steps in. He was the director of the first
film, Dr. No. And the way the sources describe
Young's, like, finishing school for Connery is
just incredible. It really is. Young realized
that to make Connery believable as Bond, he couldn't
just tell him to act rich. He had to teach him
the physical choreography of the upperclassmen.
The physical choreography, I love that. Yeah.
Young took him to the finest restaurants, taught
him how to order wine, how to walk in high -end
casinos. He even taught him how to wear a bespoke
suit so that it looked like his everyday clothes
rather than some costume he rented for the afternoon.
And the result is staggering. I mean, when Dr.
No hits theaters in 1962, it changes Western
pop culture overnight. It really does. The way
he delivers Bond, James Bond, establishes a whole
new archetype. He becomes this untouchable global
sex symbol. Even Ian Fleming completely reversed
his opinion. Did he really? Yeah, he was so blown
away by the final film that he actually went
back to his typewriter and gave the literary
James Bond a Scottish heritage just to align
with Connery. That is wild, but you know, the
reality of playing that character was actually
grueling. The machine was quite literally dangerous.
Oh, you're talking about Thunderball? Yeah, the
shark incident. During the filming of Thunderball
in 1965, Connery was shooting a scene in a pool
with live sharks. Which sounds like a terrible
idea to begin with. Right. He had demanded a
plexiglass partition for safety, but the crew
didn't secure it properly. One of the sharks
actually breached the partition. Wow. Yeah. Connery
had to scramble out of the water to avoid an
actual shark attack. Just terrifying. So what
does this all mean? I mean, let's look at the
other side of this. He gets the role of a lifetime.
It makes him unfathomably rich. It turns him
into a global icon. Everyone wants to be him
or be with him. Right. And yet after just a few
films, he famously says he is fed up to hear
with the whole Bond bit and tells an interviewer
he'd like to kill the character. He really did
say that. Isn't this the ultimate be careful
what you wish for scenario? Or is he just being
ungrateful? Well, if we connect this to the bigger
picture, you have to look at what typecasting
does to an artist's psychology. Early, massive
success can become a gilded cage. A gilded cage,
yeah. Connery saw himself as a serious craftsman.
In his early years, he was constantly reading
Proust, Ibsen, and Shakespeare to educate himself.
He was a serious guy. Exactly. But now, he couldn't
walk down the street without someone yelling
a catchphrase at him. Everyone saw James Bond.
No one saw Sean Connery. That would get exhausting.
He realized that the character was actively consuming
his identity and worse, it was consuming his
autonomy. He was losing his leverage. Exactly.
And Connery treated his career like a high -stakes
union negotiation. He was always willing to walk
away from the table to prove he had the power.
That realization is exactly what drove his next
era. He knew that to survive as an actor, he
had to actively destroy the very image Terrence
Young had built for him. Precisely. And he started
weaponizing his massive feign to do it. He began
taking roles specifically designed to shatter
that tuxedoed illusion. Here's where it gets
really interesting. In 1964, right at the peak
of Bond mania, Alfred Hitchcock casts him in
the psychological thriller Marnie. Which is a
huge deal. Hitchcock is a cinematic god. A total
legend. But Connery shocks everyone by demanding
to read the script before officially signing
on, just to ensure he isn't being shoved into
another spiral. Which you just didn't do with
Hitchcock. Right. Hitchcock's agent is furious.
He tells Connery, Cary Grant doesn't ask to read
Hitchcock scripts. And what did Connery say?
Connery just looks at him bluntly and says, I'm
not Cary Grant. That is a master class in establishing
boundaries. It really is. He is telling the most
powerful corrector in the world, my participation
is conditional and I set the terms. He was completely
unafraid to look foolish if it meant protecting
his artistic freedom. I mean, just look at the
1974 sci -fi film Zardo's, often called one of
the most bizarre movies ever made. He spends
the film running around a post -apocalyptic wasteland
in a bright red mankini and thigh -high boots.
It completely obliterated the suave Bond aesthetic.
Totally. But the director, John Borman, noted
that between takes of running around in that
absurd outfit, Connery was sitting quietly reading
and writing poetry. Wow, really? Yeah. He was
a man of profound intellectual depth who was
deliberately deconstructing his own commercial
image so he could rebuild it on his own terms.
And that rebuild was incredibly successful. He
gets a massive late career renaissance. He wins
the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for
the Untouchables in 1987. Playing Jimmy Malone,
that gritty street smart Chicago cop. Yeah. And
he plays Indiana Jones's father. Harrison Ford
actually explicitly credited Connery with reshaping
that script to give the character real emotional
weight. That's right. But for all the iconic
roles he took, the ones he rejected are almost
more revealing. The scale of his rejections is...
Truly staggering. He was offered the role of
the architect in the Matrix trilogy. Which he
turned down. Right. He was offered Albus Dumbledore
in the Harry Potter series. Turned it down. And
of course, he was offered the role of Gandalf
in the Lord of the Rings. OK, wait, let's talk
about this. The sources show he was offered $30
million upfront, plus 15 % of the worldwide box
office for Lord of the Rings. Which is an insane
amount of money. That translates to an estimated
$450 million. He walked away from nearly half
a billion dollars because he simply said he didn't
understand the script. I have to push back here.
How does anyone walk away from that kind of money
just because they don't get the fantasy elements.
Is that hubris or just a guy who is utterly uncompromising?
Well, this raises an important question about
the mechanics of power in Hollywood. By that
point in his life, Connery had already achieved
maximum commercial and financial success. Right.
He was already rich. Exactly. What did half a
billion dollars actually mean to him? Nothing
compared to his peace of mind. Oh, peace of mind.
Connect this back to his refusal of the Manchester
United contract. He calculated the expiration
date of his patients. A massive, CGI -heavy,
fantasy epic shooting for years in New Zealand.
That's an environment where an actor has very
little control. And we know how much he valued
control. Right. He valued his autonomy over their
money. If he couldn't grasp the story, he knew
he'd be miserable. And he simply refused to be
miserable for a paycheck. That perfectly explains
his final exit from the industry, because in
2003, he stars in the League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen. And that production was an absolute
nightmare. The sources detail how Connery felt
the director was completely losing control of
the set, to the point where Connery publicly
stated the director should be arrested for insanity.
Arrested for insanity? Yeah, yeah. He spent months
trying to salvage the movie in the editing room.
And after that exhausting battle, He was done.
He officially quit. He officially confirmed his
retirement, stating he was completely disillusioned
with the Hollywood machine. He enacted the ultimate
walkway. When the industry stopped being creatively
engaging and became a source of endless stress,
he pulled the plug. He never looked back. That
uncompromising, stubborn nature was the engine
of his entire professional life. It really was.
But that exact same uncompromising nature didn't
shut off when the camera stopped rolling. It
bled heavily into his personal life, too. Yeah,
creating a legacy that is fiercely Scottish,
highly decorated and undeniably controversial.
Because when you refuse to bend for anyone, you
inevitably create some very sharp unforgiving
edges. Looking at his life is like looking at
a brilliantly cut gemstone. How do you mean?
It catches the light in incredible ways, but
if you look closely, it has some very sharp,
rough edges that were never smoothed out. Absolutely.
For instance, his devotion to Scotland was a
lifelong constant. Even while living abroad,
he was a major financial backer of the Scottish
National Party, or the SMP. Right, which advocates
for Scottish independence. His political stance
was so loud and deeply held that it reportedly
caused his nomination for a knighthood to be
vetoed by the UK government in both 1997 and
1998. He did finally receive that knighthood
in the year 2000 from Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh.
And, of course, because he is Sean Connery, he
refused to wear the standard morning suit. He
wore a kilt, right. He wore the green and black
hunting tartan kilt of his mother's McLean clan.
Classic Connery. But you know, the sources also
detail significant controversies that we have
to talk about. Right. And before we get into
this, we want to make it absolutely clear to
you, the listener, that we are maintaining strict
neutrality here. We are just impartially outlining
the source text, not endorsing his actions or
taking sides. Exactly. We are just looking at
the documented history. So his tax status was
a frequent target of criticism. He was accused
of living in the Bahamas and Spain as a tax exile
to avoid paying UK rates. And there was the investigation
in Spain. Right. In 1999, Spanish authorities
launched an investigation into the sale of his
villa in Marbella. While Connery himself was
cleared by officials, his wife and 16 others
were officially charged with attempting to defraud
the Spanish Treasury. The sources also point
out highly troubling elements in his personal
life. Yes. His first wife, Diane Salento, published
an autobiography in 2006. In it, she alleged
that Connery had abused her both physically and
mentally during their marriage. Furthermore,
the sources point to highly controversial interviews
he gave to the press, specifically to Playboy
in 1965 and Vanity Fair in 1993, where he made
statements appearing to justify hitting women
under certain conditions. The text does note
that much later in 2006, Connery issued a statement
to the Times clarifying his stance. He stated,
I don't believe that any level of abuse of women
is ever justified under any circumstances. Full
stop. Again, we're just presenting the material
objectively here. Exactly. He eventually passed
away in 2020 at the age of 90 at his home in
the Bahamas from pneumonia and heart failure.
And his final wish was for his ashes to be scattered
in secret locations across his beloved Scotland.
The picture we get from all of this is of a man
who lived entirely unapologetically on his own
terms. Every bridge he built and every bridge
he burned was by his own design. That's exactly
it. When we examine the lives of massive cultural
icons, we have to recognize that the very traits
that allow them to conquer the world, in his
case, a ruthless sense of self -preservation
and an absolute refusal to compromise. They are
the same traits. that make them deeply flawed
human beings. We don't have to agree with everything
they did to learn from their journey. His life
is a testament to the power of self belief and
the reality that icons are always far messier
than the characters they play. It's an unbelievable
arc. I mean, from a milkman shivering on the
streets of Edinburgh to an Oscar winning knight
of the realm living his final days in the Caribbean.
Quite the journey. And as we've seen today, his
ultimate superpower wasn't his looks or his voice.
His true superpower was his ability to say no.
He possessed this uncanny, calculated ability
to identify the exact moment a situation stopped
serving him, whether it was a street gang, a
football contract, a multi -billion dollar spy
franchise, or the entire Hollywood studio system,
and just pivot. Which leaves us with a fascinating
final thought for you to consider. Okay, let's
hear it. Connery originally chose acting over
football. because a footballer's career expires
at age 30. Yet decades later, when Hollywood
stopped being fun and became a source of stress,
he actively chose to put an expiration date on
his own legendary acting career. He walked away
while he still had the power. So what is the
James Bond? in your own life? What is the thing
you are highly successful at, but might eventually
need the courage to walk away from in order to
truly be yourself? That is a great question.
Because at the end of the day, sometimes the
bravest thing you can do isn't putting on the
tuxedo. It's knowing exactly when to take it
off.