James Bond starts 'lucky year' in Jamaica
Sean Connery, more populary known as James Bond, has had a very fulfilling career. His trip to Jamaica to film Dr No added to his superb experiences all over the world and also brought Jamaica into the spotlight.
Published Monday, January 15, 1962
The Star
'JAMES BOND' COMES TO JAMAICA
LEYTON, England: SIX FOOT two "he-man" Sean Connery is the tough, dark, Scottish actor with the bewitching grin who you lucky Jamaicans will be seeing for the next few months. He is about to film Ian Fleming's Dr. No, in which he, as only he can, plays the part of the hero secret service man "James Bond". The film will be shot in Kingston and Montego Bay.
The company, according to present schedule, flies out from London on January 14, but Sean Connery, breaking his journey in New York, is on his way before then. In Jamaica, author Ian Fleming and Sean Connery will, together, bring the fabulous "Bond" to life. They have already met in London meetings, which have strengthened Connery's admiration for Fleming and his work.
Luck has certainly been chasing Sean Connery recently. He flew to Canada to play Macbeth for Canadian television and later gave a memorable rendering of Alexander the Great in Rattigan's Adventure Story on BBC television.
LUCK
Yet Sean Connery's entry into the theatrical world was more an accident of fate than a calculated move. He had worked as a labourer, a lifeguard on a Scottish beach, a steel-fixer, and a printing operator before he went with a friend who was being auditioned for a B part in South Pacific. Connery emerged with a part in the chorus!
He then went into film, his first being No Road Back, in which he played a lorry driver. Since then, he has been in a Disney production in Hollywood, and made Another Time Another Place and Tarzan's Greatest Adventure. One of his latest films was On The Fiddle, the British comedy in which he plays a moronic airman, and then, with a quick change of IQ, he played the lover in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina for BBC television.
In spite of his success, Sean Connery is still likeable and easy to know, as I found when I went to see him in his London home recently. His large frame seemed to reduce his mews flat to doll's house size 1. He stoops to go through doorways! It is furnished in a primitive, comfortable, bachelor way - the walls are whitewashed, the floor is of polished wood, the furniture is simple and practical, and there are hand-thrown pottery ornaments and lots of books.
Sean Connery told me that his name is a family nickname. It is the Irish for John,and is pronounced "Shawn". Although born and brought up in Scotland, he is equally proud of Irish ancestry.
He counts 1962 as "his lucky year", not least because it opens for him in Jamaica. He is eager for the sunshine, colour, life, and new experiences of Jamaica on this, his first visit to the Islands.
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