Sam Tapper – Managing Editor
Sean Connery, Scottish actor, starred in many major roles in Hollywood throughout his life, and his death at the age of 90 on Oct. 31 has caused many fans to reflect on his life and the true talent he was.
Connery was best known for his iconic role as the original James Bond. He starred as Agent 007 in seven of the films. He also had lead roles in numerous other classic movies, such as: “The Man Who Would Be King,” “The Molly Maguires” and Henry Jones Sr. in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” later in his career.
However, many students did not know who Connery was. Others only knew him as “the original James Bond.” For history major Josh Schumacher, a freshman, he mainly knew of Connery from his role alongside Harrison Ford in “The Last Crusade.”
“I’m only familiar with a couple of his movies, the main one being ‘The Last Crusade,’” said Schumacher. “I think it’s really unfortunate. But things like that are natural, we’ve got to just live with it.”
Contrary to Schumacher is business administration major Chris Philopena, a junior, who is an avid James Bond fan and very familiar with Connery’s movies. Philopena said Connery will go down as “one of the greatest actors of the 20th century.”
Philopena was not overly surprised to hear of Connery’s death, describing 90 as “a good long run,” but did say the situation itself was “unfortunate” while also calling it “sort of expected.”
“The biggest thing pre-World War I was to be an opera singer, then in the 20s and 30s and through that time it was to be a movie star, and when the 50s, 60s 70s came, it was to be a pop music star, so the biggest thing you can be changes, and Sean Connery was like the tail-end of that golden-age of Hollywood movie era,” said Philopena. “People in that sort of category, mythologize level of famous. Everybody in the world knows them.”
Philopena said Connery was not the first Bond he knew when growing up watching the movies, as there have been seven different actors to play the 007 Agent. Despite that, he said Connery set the tone not only for what the character should be, but served as an idol for men, young and old, to aspire to be like.
“Someone like Sean Connery, especially if you watched a lot of movies and television as a kid, as a guy, you have these ‘idols of manhood,’ and James Bond is very much one of those,” Philopena said. “This is what a man should be. A man should be suave, a man should be well-dressed, a man should be situationally aware, witty, clever. He forms a masculine personality in a sort of way, and for that I think he was very significant.”
The most recent actor to play Bond, Daniel Craig, who played the role in the franchise’s four most recent movies and the upcoming “No Time to Die,” set for release in 2021. Craig offered his own condolences, saying that “he defined an era of style” and that he “was one of the true greats of cinema,” according to BBC News.
Craig will not be continuing as James Bond in future movies and a successor has yet to be named. Some that have been rumored are Tom Hiddleston and Richard Madden.
Connery joins a list of public figures to die in 2020, including Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Boseman, Eddie Van Halen, Regis Philbin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many others. In addition to everything else, the talent and influence the world has lost this year holds historical significance.
“It’s still important to remember who has died,” said nursing major Daniela Labrador, a sophomore, “especially role models such as celebrities and stuff. It’s still important to remember them.”
