Malena Banos Pozzati
10/31/2020 11:28 AM
Clarín.com
Shows
Updated 10/31/2020 12:40 PM
The death of Sean Connery at the age of 90, in addition to generating great regret around the world for being one of the most influential actors of the last century, reactivates an old debate:
Who was the best
James Bond in history?
While the concept of "best" has a lot of subjective valuation, the truth is that Connery's 007 agent turned out to be the most iconic and durable.
He automatically became
the archetype of a secret agent
.
Charismatic and enigmatic at the same time, full of tricks and
gadgets
that would remain as his personal brand.
Although many of these elements were not present in the original character of the novels of the British Ian Fleming, it was these characteristics in combination with the high sexual load for the time that made Connery's Bond a symbol of world cinema.
And
the mold
on which not only his heirs would be based on paper, but also countless parodies and tributes that continue to this day.
He created a synthesis, a common sense around the secret agent idea.
Connery knew how to give his agent 007 the archetypal traits of the classic secret agent, who would set the course not only for the saga but for the entire genre.
His debut was in 1962, as the protagonist of El Satanico Dr No, and although he is usually credited with having been the first to play the secret agent, the truth is that he
was the second
.
The first adaptation of the stories created by Fleming with the agent was for television and in 1954. It was a 48-minute special based on the novel Casino Royale, broadcast by CBS on Climax !, an anthology program with suspense stories .
Four years later, Fleming began to think seriously about a film version of his character and thus began production of the film that would hit theaters in 1962, with a budget of just over $ 1 million and a gross of
almost $ 60 million.
.
Connery, for his first participation, is said to have earned a salary of $ 17,000.
The cachet, obviously, would increase along with the success of the franchise.
The cultural phenomenon that Bond brought about
catapulted to fame
a Connery who for years had been trying to break into the world of acting but was often
branded a sex symbol without much more merit.
Fleming himself, they say, was initially
skeptical of his choice
in the lead role.
The Irishman with a bodybuilding past and once worthy of
third place as Mr Universe
left doubts as to his acting ability.
Away from the public sphere for many years, Connery always received tributes for his extensive career in film and for having been the hallmark of eternal characters.Photo EFE / EPA / CLAUDIO ONORATI
It was far from having been the first choice for the role.
The production had aimed as its maximum objective
Cary Grant
, but he had other acting commitments.
They also contacted
Richard Johnson, Patrick McGoohan or David Niven.
Ultimately, the choice of producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli,
based more on intuition than anything else
, was a commercial success and gave the actor the opportunity to have a prolific career in which he demonstrated his great acting range.
Connery
would be Bond again in six more films
: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Operation Thunder (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Eternal (1971) and Never Say Never. (1983).
It was not a continuous string.
After the first five, Connery began to feel burned out with the character and was concerned about one aspect that could spell the end of an actor's career:
typecasting
.
For this reason, he stepped aside and sought other horizons.
For years he had been looking for roles of all kinds that would break him from the cliché, and thus he landed a starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie, and later a role in the 1974 version of the Ágatha Christie classic, Murder on the Orient Express.
However, the 007 saga called him again after his successor George Lazenby did not reap the expected acceptance in the United States.
So Connery returned as Bond for, in theory,
his final farewell to
the character in Diamonds Are Forever.
Roger Moore later managed to unleash the character of Connery, giving him his own imprint and getting the public to accept what would later become the key reading contract in the saga: that every few years, a new interpreter would take over.
Connery during a promotional event for 'Thunderball', one of the seven films in which he played Agent 007. (AP Photo, FILE)
Although, of course, the
Never Say Never Land
of the 1983 Bond film can also be applied to the career of Connery himself, who
now returned for the last time
to play the agent in the cinema in that installment that is somewhat marginal in the film. franchise.
After several legal jerks, it became
an unofficial title
directed by Irvin Kershner three years after having done the same with The Empire Strikes Back, the second of Star Wars.
In Never Say Never Never,
a mature Bond who returns to have the face of Connery
after 12 years of absence, had as his co-owner a very young Kim Basinger.
Connery would return to character in 2005, but in another format: he voiced his Bond in
video game version
, for the Electronic Arts title based on From Russia with Love.
In addition to being a traditional actor, Connery used his voice for more than one role, from a narrator in documentaries or as the dragon from Dragon Heart to, finally,
the last role of his entire career
in Sir Billi, a Scottish animation production that premiered in 2012.
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