Bloomberg.com 31 Aug. 2006

SEAN CONNERY

Evolved From 007 to Versatile Actor

By Peter Rainer

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- If you caught the American Film Institute's tribute to Sean Connery on television a while back, you might be forgiven for thinking that he remains first and foremost Bond. James Bond.

But Connery is the rare example of a performer who became a versatile actor after being identified with a famous role. When we think of Basil Rathbone we summon up Sherlock Holmes. Leonard Nimoy is always Mr. Spock, and poor George Reeves could not escape Superman.

Connery was so perfectly cast as 007 that it looked like he might suffer the same fate. But even in his license-to-kill phase he was testing his acting chops on the side, appearing in Hitchcock's ``Marnie'' and Sidney Lumet's ``The Hill.'' You can't really say that what he did as Bond was great acting, but he held the screen so effortlessly that acting wasn't required.

The first performance of Connery's to really impress me was his rebel poet Samson Shillitoe in Irvin Kershner's woefully underrated comedy ``A Fine Madness'' (1966). He's so marvelously expansive as this superannuated beatnik that just about the last person you're reminded of is 007.

Working with director Martin Ritt, Connery scored again in 1970 with ``The Molly Maguires,'' a powerful epic about striking Irish mineworkers in Pennsylvania in 1876. This film convinced me that Connery had a heroic screen presence to rival anybody's. But unlike a lot of actors who can command the screen -- John Wayne, for one -- Connery can get inside the dark places where most heroic performers fear to tread.

Kipling Classic

An example of this is Connery's performance as a brutally sadistic London police detective in Lumet's virtually unknown ``The Offence'' (1972).

Much better known is John Huston's wonderful Kipling adaptation, ``The Man Who Would Be King'' (1975). Connery plays opposite Michael Caine as a British soldier and fellow Freemason venturing into remote, snow-capped Kafiristan.

Connery pretends to be a god in order to swipe the local treasure. What makes his performance so special is that this small-timer actually begins to think of himself as a god. (Huston wanted to make this film in the 1940s with Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy. It was worth the wait.)

``Robin and Marian'' (1976) has Connery playing an aging, near-bald Robin Hood opposite Audrey Hepburn's Maid Marian. For once in the movies, a legendary pair of lovers actually look like they're in love. As a dashing thief in Michael Crichton's ``The Great Train Robbery'' (1979), Connery demonstrated once again that he could play perfectly in period costume -- in this case, circa 1850 -- without once seeming incongruous.

Oscar-Winning Role

He won his Oscar in 1987 as the tough Irish street cop in Brian De Palma's ``The Untouchables,'' a role that is rescued from cliche by Connery's nonstop intensity.

Back again in espionage mode, Connery plays a British publisher turned secret agent in Fred Schepisi's terrific adaptation of John le Carre's ``The Russia House'' (1990). The screenplay is by Tom Stoppard.

After all these riches, it would be demeaning to think of Connery only as 007. Nobody has aged better in the movies. Who else would have had the nerve, in mid-career, to proudly toss away his toupee?

(Peter Rainer is a critic for the Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own).