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R.I.P. Thread: A Celebration Of Lives Well Lived


Mr. Chatywin et al.

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I had thought he had been very unwell for years, given his retreat from the public, but I Googled and there were some photos of him enjoying himself on the Bahamas from August, so I guess he was just tired of the limelight. An iconic star and celebrity, the ur-Bond, with so many memorable films in his catalog outside of that -- The Man Who Would Be KingThe HillThe Name of the Rose, to name a few not yet mentioned. 

 

 

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I loved his Bond, but the first thing that popped in my head when I saw his passing was my college buddy who used to quote The Rock in a Connery accent "Your best?  Losers always whine about their best... winners go home and $#@% the prom queen."

A life well lived and truly an icon of the screen.  Farewell Sir Connery.

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Ran whipping out one of the top Connery quotes of all time. I always liked the theory that Rock Connery was Bond in his later years...

RIP Sean. No one has mentioned his take on a Soviet sub commander, so I'll cite his turn in The Hunt for Red October as a classic Connery flick.

Duck this year.

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Dammit!

He was 90 so he had a full life and he had been retired for more than a decade, but I was still holding out hope that maybe we might just see him again in a little cameo or something.

I never watched many of his Bond movies, I know it's not canon, or if wasn't and now it is, I don't know, I just know that Never Say Never was on cable a lot when I was a kid. I hear that that movie was another adaptation of the book Thunderball. Anyway I liked the movie a lot, especially the first half.

The Untouchables I got to see in the theater and it was great and I love that movie more and more every time I watch it.

Highlander, The Hunt For Red October, The Rock, First Knight, one of the best cameos ever in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves...loved him in all those!

But yes, Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, that is the role I fell I  love with him. He was just so great, such a wonderful performance.

RIP

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He was a great actor simply because he made it seem so easy to play the roles he did. I have watched just about everything he did, including Zardoz, and he was never less than great. The man was just magnetic on the screen.

My favourite role was not one most would pick. Playing an aged Robin Hood in Robin and Marian , he managed to humour and pathos in the same line. Marian complained that he never wrote while away on the Crusades with Richard Lionheart, and his reply, "I don't know how." is indelibly stamped in my brain.

I will miss him.

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"I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him"

Sean Connery had a great life. Not many reach 90. And life isn't the amount of breaths you take, it's the moments that take your breath away. I know, Hitch. But still, Connery had both. Long life. And great moments. Enough RIPs and crying. Let's mourn like Summer Islanders (Asoiaf), answer life with death. 

Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith. For without fear of the devil there is no need for God.

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One movie that hasn't been mentioned is Finding Forrester, which I haven't seen since it came out but I remember I really liked at the time at least.  Also woulda been nice if that was his last movie instead of A League of Extraordinary Gentleman.

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Damn. Watching Last Crusade and Hunt for Red October on VHS far too many times in the early '90s was an indelible part of my childhood. But there were so many classic films in his career, and he was the rare actor who was always completely watchable even if everything around in the movie was bad (or good movies that I don't like, like Time Bandits, his scenes were the only ones I liked).

I saw Robin and Marian for the first time earlier this year. I'd never heard of it or knew anything about it; watching it really got to me. I never thought of him as romantic lead eitheer, but apparently he could do that too.

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RIP Sean Connery.

He was (and to his dismay) will always be remembered as Bond, James Bond. Easily his role.

Otherwise he had a mixed bag of movies and roles. Most of his acting was good, even when the films were not (The Rock, Robin Hood king of thieves) Come to mind.

Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez. The Egyptian who was more Scottish than the Highlander would probably be my pick of Sean Connery roles, I most fondly remember him for (there was no sequel).

My least favorite Connery role is a bit of a toss up between League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Entrapment. Those were just awful movies - even worse than Rising Sun, which is a genuine awful movie in its own right.

Altho, I admit I find the story how ended up in the league of extraordinary boredom quite amusing. Rumoredly he was offered the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, which he turned down, because he didn't get it. The movies went on to be quite successful (obviously), which kinda annoyed Connery. Then he received the script for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and having learnt his lesson, he didn't get it and thus accepted the role.

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3 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Altho, I admit I find the story how ended up in the league of extraordinary boredom quite amusing. Rumoredly he was offered the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, which he turned down, because he didn't get it. The movies went on to be quite successful (obviously), which kinda annoyed Connery. Then he received the script for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and having learnt his lesson, he didn't get it and thus accepted the role.

As well as LOTR I remember hearing he turned down the role of Morpheus in The Matrix, again because he didnt' understand it.

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Great thread from a screenwriter about an interaction he and his writing partner had with Connery in the early 2000s. He doesn't name the film or the director it involved, but I figured it out:

Spoiler

The film was Josiah's Canon, "A Holocaust survivor leads the world's foremost team of bank robbers. The criminal mastermind sets his sights on an supposedly impenetrable bank in Switzerland, which holds special appeal: It purportedly houses gelt deposited by Jews prior to the Holocaust." 

And the tennis player-dating director who was just a "bucket of smoke"? Brett Ratner. Hah.

 

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I was too young to appreciate Sean Connery as James Bond.  Roger Moore was the one I was always identified with in my younger days.

I saw The Untouchables in the theater with my father back in '87.  I was 14. I thought, "This is hands-down greatest film ever made!"  Around this time I saw a grainy VHS copy of Highlander. I was like, "How have I not heard of this?!? This is incredible." The second Sean Connery movie I saw in a theater was the sequel. I wept at how bad it was. Good times. 

RIP Sean Connery.

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I like most of the Connery films I've seen.  My favorite would have to be Untouchables which I claimed as my favorite movie for years after I first saw it.  Untouchables was the first VHS tape I ever bought.  Strange as it is to say about a celebrity, Connery was bigger than life.  I love the part in the story Ran posted where the writers felt Sean understood what meeting him meant to them...and presumably others.  I always like that awareness in a celebrity.  Connery was one of the greats no question.  He would have been great in Matrix but thank all that is holy he passed on Gandalf.  That is not a good fit for Sean Connery.

RIP

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What was so great about Connery was that he really just elevates a movie from his sheer presence. He was a towering persona, one of those actors you would watch a movie just because he was in it. 

Thinking back to all my favourite performances, it was probably Untouchables that was my first introduction to him, being the age I was when it came out. But then also in Last Crusade I think he almost single handedly makes that movie, showing incredible comic timing, something he wasn't known for. 

Plus he was the best Bond, I really don't think there can be any real doubt about that, he embodied the character and yet was easily able to escape it and play numerous others without problem. 

I didn't realise he was 90. 

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16 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

RIP Sean Connery.

He was (and to his dismay) will always be remembered as Bond, James Bond. Easily his role.

Otherwise he had a mixed bag of movies and roles. Most of his acting was good, even when the films were not (The Rock, Robin Hood king of thieves) Come to mind.

Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez. The Egyptian who was more Scottish than the Highlander would probably be my pick of Sean Connery roles, I most fondly remember him for (there was no sequel).

My least favorite Connery role is a bit of a toss up between League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Entrapment. Those were just awful movies - even worse than Rising Sun, which is a genuine awful movie in its own right.

Altho, I admit I find the story how ended up in the league of extraordinary boredom quite amusing. Rumoredly he was offered the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, which he turned down, because he didn't get it. The movies went on to be quite successful (obviously), which kinda annoyed Connery. Then he received the script for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and having learnt his lesson, he didn't get it and thus accepted the role.

Watch Zardoz. 

Also, Connery was the least problematic part of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

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