Birthday quote 25th August

Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery is a retired Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes.

Connery has said that he was called Sean, his middle name, long before becoming an actor, although he was referred to in his youth as "Tommy". He was small in primary school, he grew rapidly around the age of 12, reaching 6 ft 2 at 18. He was known during his teen years as "Big Tam".

Connery's first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. He then joined the Royal Navy, but was discharged later on because of health problems. Afterwards, he returned to the co-op, then worked as, among other things, a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a labourer, an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, and a coffin polisher. The modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour. Connery had begun bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British army. He was also a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days.

He became involved in acting after helping out backstage in the King's Theatre in late 1951, and played his first acting role as a chorus boy in the play 'South Pacific' in 1953. As he toured with the production, he gradually begun to get bigger parts; by the time the play was showing in Edinburgh he had been given the part of Marine Cpl Hamilton Steeves and was understudying two of the juvenile leads. While in Edinburgh, Connery was targeted by the notorious Valdor gang, one of the most ruthless gangs in the city. Six gang members followed him to a 15 ft high balcony at the Palais. There Connery launched a single-handed attack against the gang members, grabbing one by the throat and another by a biceps and cracked their heads together. From then on he was treated with great respect by the gang and gained a reputation as a "hard man".

Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables. His film career also includes such films as Marnie, The Name of the Rose, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Finding Forrester, Highlander, Murder on the Orient Express, Dragonheart, and The Rock.

Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century". Connery was knighted by Elizabeth II in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to Film Drama.

Born 25 August 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Some age, others mature.

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