Connery was a cheap Brosnan
29 May 2001

Irish actor Pierce Brosnan may be the current James Bond but for many 007 fans there is only one real Bond. It was the role he made his own, but Sir Sean Connery suggested in an interview published over the weekend that he only got the part in the first James Bond film because he was cheap to employ.

According to the 70-year-old Scot the preferred actors for the starring role in Dr No were too expensive for producer Harry Saltzman and author Ian Fleming.

He told the Daily Record newspaper: "I got it because they could afford me. Ian Fleming - a terrible snob, but a very interesting guy - wanted Cary Grant or Trevor Howard. They couldn't afford either of them. The movie's budget was one million dollars. Then the Americans devalued, so it was 960,000 dollars. I think I got 5,000 dollars."

The star of From Russia With Love and Goldfinger added: "Playing the part is harder than anyone thought. There have been four others and they have all had problems with it. It is maybe easier to be the first because you set the bar which they all have to cross.''

Sir Sean also said his screen career, including seven Bond films and an Academy Award-winning performance in The Untouchables, began almost by accident.

The young Connery had been going from job to job, when he was approached by two fellow competitors at a bodybuilding competition in London who mentioned a job in the chorus of the musical South Pacific. "They said all I had top do was a few hand springs and sing and I would get 14 a week,'' Sir Sean told the paper. "I auditioned and said I was an actor. They asked me to sing, but I said I didn't have any music so I didn't have to sing."

And Edinburgh-born Sir Sean also told the newspaper why he now goes to see Glasgow Rangers football team play instead of their Old Firm rivals Celtic, the team he had followed during the era of the late Parkhead manager Jock Stein in the 1960s. He explained: "I like good football. I was a very good friend of Jock Stein and Bob Kelly and went to Celtic. They are no longer around. I then met David Murray and I liked him and the things he is doing with Rangers, so I go there. There are now more Catholics there than at the other place."