Why does Connery frown upon the Series?
AlphaOmegaSin
EnglandPosts: 10,926MI6 Agent
It's odd, considering it's what made him famous in the first place. Most James Bond Documentaries have had all of the Actors giving Interviews apart from Connery. Just look at the recent one (Forgotten it's name) to know what I mean. You think he would be a bit more Grateful towards Eon and the people who went to see his Films during his tenure as Bond.
1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
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Yes I know what you mean. To be fair to him he is retired now and must have
done a million interviews in his day.
Sean seems to have felt he was massively underpaid for his role as Bond.
I think I read it on the Bond on Bond book that one of the directors suggestion bringing Connery as a Partner at Eon with creative input rather than just an actor but Cubby and Harry refused.
It was Terence Young who suggested that Sean Connery be made a partner, but Cubby Broccoli & Harry Saltzman refused believing the character of James Bond was bigger than the actor who portrayed him. They were eventually proved right.
Considering that he now living in a mansion over in Spain whilst claiming to have Scottish Independence in mind, it's hard to think that he was underpaid.
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
I'd second that - he's no Roger Moore really, is he. Moore, the gentleman who never forgot the Bond films' impact on his career and has acted as the Grand Old Man of Bond and as the James Bond Ambassador ever since, God bless him!
Though, I'm sure the George Lazenby of 1969-70 could give Connery a run for his money in "Biggus Dickus" status!
I can understand it when you see Connery getting hounded for autographs, and I know he buried the hatchet with Cubby before he died, but I can't help feel there's still some animosity with him and EoN.
I just wish that Connery could be a little more like erm, Moore and remember what bond did for him. Much wants bloody more I guess.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
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I've gone to the trouble of calculating how much he made in today's dollars
Dr No: 20,000 in 1962. 152,000 today. 125,000 dollar bonus total is 946,000 dollars
From Russia With Love: 250,000 in 1963 which is 1.8 million dollars in 2012
Goldfinger: 500,000 in 1964 plus 5 percent. 3.5 million total in 1964 that's almost 26 million dollars in 2012
Thunderball: 750,000 in 1965 which is close to 5.5 million in today's dollars
You Only Live Twice: 1 million which is 7.3 million dollars today
Diamonds Are Forever: 6.7 million which is 38 million dollars today
Never Say Never Again (Which I count because he wouldn't of got the role without being the original Bond for EON): 6.4 million in 1983 which is 14.7 million today.
Connery made more than any other Bond (Including Roger Moore) and he won't even come out for the 50 years of Bond celebrations or even talk about his time as Bond anymore?
Lazenby who only got 400,000 for his 1 film is always happy to come out and talk about his time as Bond, Dalton who made 8 million is always happy to talk about it, Brosnan is as well as is Roger Moore.
Connery just comes off as really greedy if IMDB is correct on the figures Connery would of made almost 100 million dollars from Bond alone (In 2012 money) and of course it launched his career thus giving him other high paid acting gigs.that he probably wouldn't of got otherwise.
I don't want him to be like a Roger Moore but he definitely should do the major celebrations.
I don't think it's simply a matter of money. Connery starred as Bond during the height of Bond-mania. As I understand it, part of the dispute is that Connery felt he was being used as a tool to promote the franchise, and aside from constantly being hounded by autograph hunters as minigeff referred to, he felt that this lead to him being typecast as James Bond to the detriment of his chances of securing other roles. When people saw Connery back then, they didn't see an actor playing James Bond, they saw James Bond.
Also, I don't agree with his Nationalistic Views either.
I didn't say it does. I was merely stating that I think is dispute with EON has more to do than money.
I don't have to like his reasons nor agree with them, whatever they happen to be, but I respect his decision not to participate.
Wouldn't it have been so great for the fans to have all the bond actors lined up together for the caneras?
It kinda gets me how these people moan about the constant attention from the worlds press, yet this would have been totally expected when they took on the role.
"We'd like you to be the next James Bond"
"Oh great, I'll be able to keep it quiet though, won't I?"
I think appearing for the 50th anniversary would have done Connery a lot more good than shunning it, but hey, he's made his money, the fans aren't important anymore and the world can go to hell can't it? I wonder if he'd feel the same if he was still lugging coal around?
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
I know that Connery as bond and Connery in real life are different things, but the latter can actually effect our opinions on the former more than we realise...
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
You guys can't even really begin to understand what Sean Connery went through because you haven't gone through it yourselves. You guys can sit here on your moral platitudes and complain about how Sean Connery bit the hand that fed him and basically told the fans to go **** themselves, but you'll never really know what Sean Connery went through because you cannot walk a mile in his shoes.
That's why I said he comes across as a dick, rather than he is a dick. None of us know for sure, so that's why I've said things like "from what we've heard"
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
We all handle situations differently. And Sean Connery simply couldn't handle being scrutinized by the Japanese Paparazzi, and he couldn't handle essentially being exploited by Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. I mean the God damn Everything or Nothing documentary says it, itself.
"And the next thing you knew they came in and said he wasn't going to do the last picture in the deal. And that did not make us happy. I mean, what would you think? Your leading man is gone, and here the series was jeopardized, that's not good news. I thought, it was very bad judgment on their part. The fact is Cubby and Harry renegotiated their deal with us several times, they were keeping themselves happy but they weren't keeping him happy."
It's like when Bob Kane came up with the concept of Batman but it wasn't the Batman we know today. It was this really gay and fruity design that looked like a late 1930's version of Adrian Veidt, (Ozymandias) from the Watchmen comics, and Bill Finger came up with a better design and eventually it evolved into what we know today when we think of Batman. But Bob Kane didn't share in the credit.
And essentially the same thing has happened with James Bond. They never had a pure, literary, cinematic, version of James Bond, what they had was what Terence Young and Sean Connery had come up with, and like Bob Kane, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman would not share in the credit.
Well I read that on average per film, Connery got paid less than any other Bond actor aside from Lazenby, if you adjust for inflation! NSNA doesn't count, it wasn't EON, and DAF doesn't count too much cos Connery gave £1m to charity, though he got a huge percentage of the North American gross. On that basis, bearing in mind the phenomonal success of the films in the 60s, Connery had a right to feel shortchanged. As for the whole Bond hoopla, well, Moore is better at all that and being asked daft questions he's been asked a 100 times before, not many of us would put up with that in our prime let alone in our 80s.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
He's a Scot and the disparity clearly still annoys him, however my view is that as producers, Saltzman and Broccoli were absolutely within their rights to structure pay however they wished. They had bought the rights, formed the film and production companies, hired the crew's using their own not inconsiderable experience as producers. They were the ones who met Fleming and did the deal, who trawled the idea of a film series round the Hollywood studios and who finally did the deal Arthur Krim & David Picker at United Artists.
Connery had an agent, why didn't he negotiate a better deal if it was so obvious that he was being wronged?
Also I think Connery began to believe his own myth. How much worth do we attribute to John Barry or Peter Hunt's editing or the risks taken by George Leech and Bob Simmons to make Connery look good? Or the work of the production designer Ken Adam?
I'm sure they were all well paid but in comparison to Connery it would have been a lot less and yet they all are vital parts of the Bond phenomenon.
You can't change his mind I am willing to bet, but it is indeed sad that we couldn't see all the actors together just for one photo opportunity or hear Connery doing his own dvd commentary a la Roger Moore/Pierce Brosnan.
If Connery were to bury the hatchet he would undoubtedly receive a lot of love from the fans.
Compare that with the other actors. Lazenby could have used the franchise to
get him into a larger career, but he pretty much tripped himself up from the start - being a model without any acting experience was just another huge handicap, whereas the other actors were already established and the Bond films only boosted their careers. However except for Brosnan and Craig, the others did not benefit further career wise from the series. Compare their film careers post Bond to Connery's. Brosnan has gotten to do a few choice films and Craig has no problem getting leads in other large, mainstream films. So Lazenby and Moore are really the only two who still like to benefit financially from making Bond related publicity appearances since they're film careers are
over (you don't think they do this for free do you?). I know Dalton is still trying to keep his going, but he seems to have really bad agent or agents considering the non Bond films he's done. Sifting through this one can see how Connery doesn't want to associate with the franchise anymore. He's in his 80's, probably not in the best of health and is done with being in the public eye. I can understand his not wanting to do the 50th anniversary publicity storm during the past year or attending the Oscars.
I agree he's not someone I'd want to know personally (as opposed to someone like Moore), but there it is.
Frankly, if Craig's films were to start from scratch, I don't think they'd have made it. It only works cos of the old movies, so Connery has done his bit frankly.
Roger Moore 1927-2017