Sean Connery: Our Favorite Scot For All Seasons And All Reasons

Edinburgh is our favorite city in the world for so many reasons.

It is pure Scotland, heart and soul and it just happens to be the hometown of one of the world’s most famous Scots — Sir Sean Connery.

We lost him on October 31, he left us quietly in his sleep at age 90.  He was battling health issues, including dementia.

He was born Thomas Sean Connery to working-class parents.  His first-ever job was milkman — delivering milk all over Edinburgh, he later joined the Royal Navy at age 16.

In his teenage years, they called him “Big Tam” which,  if you imagine a Scottish brogue, that’s what “Big Tom” would sound like.  He was full grown (6-2) by the age of 18.

His acting career started with various extra roles in stage productions and he always had other jobs because small-bit actors earned small-bit money.

The world met Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie — Dr. No.  Connery backed into the role of Bond.  Ian Fleming, author of the Bond books, didn’t think he was the right guy, neither did co-producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli.  But it was Broccoli’s wife Dana and Fleming’s girlfriend who told their men that Connery was the guy, he had “it.”  Good to have women on your side and the rest is history.

Connery was bitten by the golf bug after taking lessons for the now-famous golf scene in “Goldfinger.”  That was in 1964, same year we were bitten by that golf bug.

How cool was it to see that James Bond was a golfer?  Answer — way cool.  Golf was still a non-mainstream sport back then and every exposure helped.  Bond helped.

Truth be known, by the time he made five Bond movies, Connery didn’t like being type-cast as Bond.  “Hey, there’s James Bond!” he’d heard that countless times on the street and it didn’t sit well with him.  He was an actor, a versatile actor and that would become very evident in later roles.

His love for golf became an obsession.  He eventually was invited and became and member of the Royal & Ancient and played in a lot of club tournaments on the Old Course at St. Andrews.  As an R&A member, he would have a few adult beverages afterward in that splendid old clubhouse.

Connery became a strong advocate for Scottish independence from the U.K.  Perhaps that’s a reason he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II until the year 2000.

Another interesting tidbit about Sir Sean is that he wouldn’t give interviews and talk about golf.  Golf Digest pursued him on countless occasions — wanting him for the cover story — but he was one elusive Scot when he came to talking on the record about the game he grew to love.

Connery won an Oscar for best supporting actor alongside Kevin Costner in The Untouchables in 1987.

But those of us who saw it (Goldfinger) on the big screen will always remember the great Bond vs. Goldfinger golf match, filmed at Stoke Park outside London.

Golf scenes in movies were very uncommon back then.

But Thomas Sean Connery was a very uncommon Scot.

He will be missed.  This son of Edinburgh had two tatoos — one paid tribute to his parents — “Mum and Dad”.

The other?

“Scotland Forever”

Yes, that was Sir Sean Thomas Connery.

Forever.