{"id":108500,"date":"2020-11-10T17:01:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T00:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108500"},"modified":"2020-11-10T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T00:01:10","slug":"from-sri-lanka-with-love-tribute-to-sean-connery-1930-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/10\/from-sri-lanka-with-love-tribute-to-sean-connery-1930-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM SRI LANKA WITH LOVE-Tribute to Sean Connery (1930-2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rohan Abeygunawardena,Nugegoda.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The 32 year old six footer who thrilled the youths as well\nas adults in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in early sixties is no more. His full name\nis Thomas Sean Connery<\/strong> died on 31\nOctober2020, five days after his 90th birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean became an overnight sensation when the English movie \u2018Dr.\nNo<\/strong>\u2019<\/em> was screened sometime in 1964 at the Savoy cinema in Wellawatte,\nColombo. Young men and women who saw the movie were fascinated by the way James\nBond (played by Sean) introduced himself to a pretty lady playing the Baccarat<\/a> table seated opposite to him\nat the London club Le Cercle. After losing two rounds Sylvia Trench<\/a>\n(played by Eunice Gayson<\/a>)\nwants to continue while Bond remarks he admires her courage. Sylvia replies \u00cd\nadmire your luck \u2026.Mr.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the sensational introduction, while lighting a\ncigarette with his Ronson Bond\u2026.. James Bond.<\/em>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article written by my friend and classmate Firoze Sameer,\npublished in \u2018The Sunday Times Plus\u2019<\/em>\non 25 May, 2008, under the title \u2018He lit\na flame that thrilled audiences through the ages\u2019 <\/em>which was a tribute to the 100th<\/sup> birth anniversary of Ian\nFleming, the creator of James Bond, the British Secret Service agent, explained\nthe scenario after screening \u2018Dr No.\u2019<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quote We were then grade ten students at Royal\nCollege Colombo. Connery in the plush casino answering a beaut across the green\nbaize, Bond, James Bond,\u201d while lighting one of his Morland Specials with a\ngunmetal Ronson against that famous theme, made an indelible impact in a\nbizarre way on our sensitive psyches. We switched from reading Chase to\nFleming\u2019s Bond books. Although we did not know it then, Ian Fleming had died in\nthe same year on August 12.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bond\u2019s meeting with beautiful \u2018Honey Ryder\u2019 (played by\n\u00darsula Andress\u2019) who rose out of sea at the Crab Island beach off the coast of\nJamaica in an ivory hued bikini singing the popular number \u2018Underneath the\nmango tree\u2018 was another scene from the movie which will be remembered for ever.\nWhen James Bond repeated the song astonished Ryder pulled out her diving knife\nthat she was sporting on her hip, challenging the stranger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently that ivory-coloured two piece is to go under the\nhammer in Los Angeles on 12th<\/sup> November, where the set is estimated\nto sell for up to $500,000 according to the auctioneer\u2019s estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Bond who had a licence to kill, moving from one hotel\nto another, flirting with beautiful dames, driving flashy cars captured the\nyouthful imagination of many a Sri Lankan youth. They imitated the lighting of\ncigarettes, style of talking, walking, smoking, eating, drinking and many\nactions of Double-O-Seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland\non 25th August 1930. His mom, Euphemia “Effie” McBain McLean, was a\ncleaning woman and dad Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and lorry driver. His\npaternal great-grandparents emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in the mid-19th\ncentury. The others in his family were of Scottish origin. He joined the Royal\nNavy in 1946 at the age of 16. He was trained at the naval gunnery school and\nin an anti-aircraft crew. He was then assigned as an Able Seaman on HMS Formidable<\/a>. Sean was discharged<\/a> from the navy at the age of 19\non medical grounds due to a duodenal<\/a> ulcer<\/a>, a condition that affected most of\nthe males in previous generations of his family (Wikipedia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a youth Sean had many different jobs such as a milkman,\nlorry driver, a laborer, artist’s model for the Edinburgh College of Art,\ncoffin polisher. Then he ventured in to body building for a short time and\nwhile at a competition held in London in 1953, he had the opportunity to face\nan audition for the production of the\n<\/em>South Pacific<\/em><\/a>\nmusical. He was selected for a minor part as one of the Seabees chorus boys.\nDue to popular demand the play was staged several times in Edinburgh and by\nthen Sean was given the important role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams at a fee\nof \u00a314\u201310s a week. In a real life drama around this time, the Valdor gang, one\nof the most violent in the city targeted him and tried to grab his jacket at a billiard hall<\/a> in\nEdinburgh. Later he launched an attack singlehandedly against the gang members,\ngrabbing one by the throat and another by his biceps and cracked their heads\ntogether. From then on, he was treated with great respect by the gang and\ngained a reputation as a “hard man.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean once said he had a choice between becoming a\nprofessional footballer or an actor at the age of 23. Even though he showed\nmuch promise in the sport, his choice of acting he said, was one of his more\nintelligent moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some time he played a blend of small stage and minor\ntelevision roles. Fortunately he got the chance of acting as the aging boxer\nMountain McClintock in Requiem for\na Heavyweight<\/em>\u201d on live television for the BBC from March 1957. A\nreviewer for The Times of London wrote, he had shambling and inarticulate\ncharm.\u201d Soon after, Sean Connery received movie offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was selected for minor roles in a string of movies,\nincluding Action of the Tiger<\/em>\u201d\n(1957), a thriller starring Van Johnson and Tarzan\u2019s Greatest Adventure<\/em>\u201d (1959), in which he played a villain\nout to destroy a village. He also played as a private in Daryll F Zanuk\u2019s\nall-star D-Day saga The Longest Day<\/em>\u201d\n(1962) and a man enchanted into falling in love in Disney\u2019s Darby O\u2019Gill and the Little People<\/em>\u201d\n(1959).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean’s big breakthrough came when he was selected for the\nrole of British secret agent James Bond in Dr No<\/em>. He owed a lot to Dana Broccoli, wife of producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli<\/a>, who told her\nhusband that Sean was the right man for the job. Director Terence Young<\/a> took him under his wing, accompanied\nhim to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat and\npolished him. The tutoring was successful and Dana Broccoli proved correct when\nSean Connery received thousands of fan letters a week after Dr No<\/em> opening, and became a major sex symbol<\/a> in film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When The Longest Day\u201d was first screened in Colombo Sean\u2019s\nname did not appear in billboard or newspaper advertisements, as he appeared\nonly for few second carrying an injured soldier in a stretcher, but when the\nmovie was screened a second time his name appeared along with John Wayne, Henry\nFonda and Richard Burton. Such was the impact made by Sean\u2019s James Bond role in\nDr No<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the popularity of Dr No<\/em> and From Russia With\nLove<\/em> (the second Bond film to be screened in Colombo) a Sinhala spy movie Sorungeth Soru (<\/em>\u0dc3\u0ddc\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dca\u0d9c\u0dd9\u0dad\u0dca \u0dc3\u0ddc\u0dbb\u0dd4) was produced starring\nGamini Fonseka as secret agent Jamis Banda directed by Mike Wilson, the\nEnglishman who produced and directed the first Sinhala colour movie Ranmuthu Duva<\/em>.\u201d Other actors included Jeveranee\nKurukulasuriya, Robin Fernando, Bandu Munasinghe, Joe Abeywicrama, Piyadasa\nGunasekara and Liz Wilson (Mike\u2019s wife). The black and white movie won the best\nfilm award and best actor award (Gamini) at the 5th<\/sup> Sarasaviya\nAwards in 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Bond movies which followed, screened in Colombo were From Russia With Love<\/em>\u2019\u2019 at the Savoy\nCinema in 1965 followed by Gold finger<\/em>\u201d\nin 1966, Thunderball<\/em>\u201d in 1967, You Live Only Twice<\/em>\u201d in 1968, Diamonds are Forever<\/em>\u2019\u2019 in 1973. Connery\nacted in all these movies as the dynamic MI6 agent James Bond attached to the\nDouble-0 section with number Seven. Bond movies which followed after his\ndeparture, starring with other actors including Roger Moore as the agent 007\nwere popular among the Sri Lankan fans, but many who saw Dr No<\/em>, and especially From Russia, With Love which was the favourite\nof Connery and author Ian Fleming, in their youth consider Sean Connery as the\ngreatest James Bond.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rohan Abeygunawardena,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nugegoda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rohan Abeygunawardena,Nugegoda. The 32 year old six footer who thrilled the youths as well as adults in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in early sixties is no more. His full name is Thomas Sean Connery died on 31 October2020, five days after his 90th birthday. Sean became an overnight sensation when the English movie \u2018Dr. No\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}