My name is Connery. Sean Connery.
December 29, 2014 8:04 AM   Subscribe

I've re-watched some Sean Connery films recently and have been struck by how little, if at all, he deviates from the "Sean Connery persona" in his roles--whether it's William of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose, Marko Ramius in The Hunt for Red October, Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables, etc. I like Connery quite a bit, but don't have the patience watch my way through his filmography--has he ever played a character as other than a Scottish scamp?

For instance, has Connery ever played a Julius Kelp-style nerd, or tried putting on a different accent, etc.? By contrast, Schwarzenegger (who I don't think has ever tried an accent) has deviated from his Ahnuld persona in Twins, Junior, etc.

The closest I can think of is Finding Forester (of "You're the man now dog" fame), but he's still the "Scottish guy who's in control" there, too, even if the character is reclusive writer.
posted by Admiral Haddock to Media & Arts (25 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Zardoz?
posted by slkinsey at 8:14 AM on December 29, 2014 [6 favorites]


I'd say he's fairly not Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
posted by sevenless at 8:18 AM on December 29, 2014 [11 favorites]


Mod note: The OP has revised the question to be clearer, carry on.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 8:56 AM on December 29, 2014


You're kidding about him playing characters with his exact name and are instead implying that he's played himself in some way in quite a few films?

I think what Admiral Haddock is getting at is more like, "the script says he's playing all these different characters but somehow he still seems to act like himself".

You may want to look at earlier roles or more serious films - I've heard good things about The Molly Maguires, where he plays an Irish immigrant coal miner during a 19th-Century labor strike.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:59 AM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks, EC, yes that's it.

Someone also mentioned over mail Darby O'Gill and the Little People, in which Connery croons. Oof! Can't wait to check that out...

I'd be very curious in particular to find any movie in which he puts on an accent of any sort.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:03 AM on December 29, 2014


He's much more subtle in "The Great Train Robbery".
posted by Melismata at 9:03 AM on December 29, 2014


Hunt for Red October, Finding Forrester, Medicine Man.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:04 AM on December 29, 2014


Well, he's not Scottish in "The Highlander".

Yes I know how little sense that makes, but it's true.
posted by Librarypt at 9:09 AM on December 29, 2014 [8 favorites]


He's a bit less a "Scottish scamp" in Robin and Marian. I guess he's an English scamp, though.

You might want to check-out The Wind and the Lion, where he plays Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni, a Moroccan Sharif.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:09 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


The Man Who Would Be King (1975) shows him stretching himself a bit. His character is still a bit of a scamp, but unlike his "Connery-ish" roles he is weak-willed and not terribly bright.

Bonus: it also stars Michael Caine.
posted by AndrewInDC at 9:18 AM on December 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


I don't think I've ever heard Connery's speaking voice venture away from his distinctive accent.
The most eccentric role he has ever played is probably in 'Zardoz'.
Many people hate this film, but I think it's great.
posted by ovvl at 10:03 AM on December 29, 2014


The Offence

Warning: it's pretty grim.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:22 AM on December 29, 2014


And another Sidney Lumet film, The Hill. I remember it as a good film, also quite grim. Looks like Connery did his best work for Lumet, eh.
posted by glasseyes at 10:41 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


EEMMV (everyone else's mileage may vary) but Zardoz is pants. In the British sense. Literally.
posted by glasseyes at 10:43 AM on December 29, 2014


Zardoz is pants. In the British sense. Literally.

I think you mean that it is literally loincloth.

But from what I've heard it is indeed a definite departure-from-form for Mr. Connery.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:59 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


You might want to check-out The Wind and the Lion, where he plays Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni, a Moroccan Sharif.

Who is essentially Sean Connery running around the desert in flowing robes with Candice Bergen. (great movie though)

I know exactly what you're asking, (indeed, I don't get what was so confusing about the original version of the question) and I think you have to go really early in his career to see "Sean Connery, actor." It seems to me that as soon as he became a household name - maybe not the moment he did Bond, but certainly by Goldfinger, he instead became "Sean Connery, huge god damn movie star," and he never really went back.

And honestly, why should he? It was Sean Connery, movie star that producers were looking for, and it was Sean Connery, movie star, audiences went to see.

One to check out might be Hitchcock's Marnie which, while a pretty awful movie, especially for Hitchcock, does feature Connery in a role that isn't just him sashaying around the screen being Sean Connery.

other people disagree, but I really hate Marnie.
posted by Naberius at 11:09 AM on December 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


I'm just going to point and look away fast - A Fine Madness.

(The book that the movie is based on is a great read worth hunting down, btw.)
posted by Chitownfats at 12:41 PM on December 29, 2014


OH MY GOD! I was thinking about this this morning. No kidding. The one that is missing is Outland. He's still Connery but not necessarily overcool. He's kind of a sad father.
posted by Che boludo! at 1:25 PM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


Came in to say Outland, aka, "High Noon in Spaaaaaace". But it was damned entertaining, IIRC.
posted by mosk at 2:13 PM on December 29, 2014


I'm not sure it was really the first, but I recall Medicine Man being reviewed (Siskel & Ebert, perhaps) as the point where he stopped acting and just started showing up as Sean Connery, Movie Star. But possibly Robin and Marian is one of the first films where it's really difficult to separate him from his persona, and his persona seems really outsized to the role or anachronistic or culturally inappropriate (see: Hunt for Red October, in which he is otherwise excellent, but just too Scottish to be taken as a Russki).

I really love The Man Who Would Be King, myself, and recommend The Hill (haven't seen The Offence). I hate Marnie for reasons that are mostly not Sean Connery-related. He has decent, if limited, roles in The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far.

I do think he's a better actor than he's given credit for; it's just that he has one of those magical packages of charisma that it's hard to bury, and even great actors like De Niro, Nicholson, and Pacino (from roughly that same generation) have had such a burden to carry, or a crutch, depending on how you see it, that I don't hold it against a lesser talent as Connery quite so much. He's just, you know, Scottish, and if someone like Christoph Waltz can go out there and play a variety of award-winning roles while still being, almost always, recognizably Christoph Waltz, carrying around his Austrian accent, it's not the worst sin in the world.

(*moves The Offence and -- less optimistically -- The Anderson Tapes up on his queue*)
posted by dhartung at 3:23 PM on December 29, 2014


Looking up The Hill, I was surprised to see it came after Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. The Offence is even later, 1973, and it did not do well at all. So I guess Connery's universe was telling him not to put too much effort into that serious acting stuff any more but just be charismatic and macho and unrepentant. Who can blame him; if the public didn't want to see him being dubious and complicated, they weren't going to pay to see the films in which he was so, and that's an awful lot of money lost for an awful lot of people.

Oh god, I hate Marnie too. Actually I watched the first 10 minutes of Notorious tonight but had to stop when Cary Grant knocked Ingrid Bergman out 'for her own good'. Thank goodness mores have changed. I was young when I first saw it but it shocks me to remember ... that I was neither shocked nor offended then. "Oh, he's a man, and he's the hero, he must know what he's doing and definitely IS RIGHT AT ALL TIMES."
posted by glasseyes at 4:55 PM on December 29, 2014


You may call them loincloths in America. We call them pants in my village.
But in the big city over the hill they call them budgie-snugglers.

posted by glasseyes at 4:59 PM on December 29, 2014


The Russia House, based on John LeCarre's novel, script by Tom Stoppard, might be what you are looking for.
posted by conrad53 at 5:04 PM on December 29, 2014


My favorite is HItchcock's Marnie. He's quite young in it. He makes an appearance in Time Bandits as Agamemnon.
posted by theora55 at 10:20 PM on December 29, 2014


He makes an appearance in Time Bandits as Agamemnon.

This may be the best example for Naberius' comment "It was Sean Connery, movie star that producers were looking for." Time Bandits' original script introduced Agamemnon as:

"The warrior took off his helmet, revealing someone that looks exactly like Sean Connery, or an actor of equal but cheaper stature."
posted by radwolf76 at 8:37 AM on December 30, 2014


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