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Lucky: Sean Connery
One of Scotland’s most beloved entertainment-world exports, Connery was the first actor to play writer Ian Fleming’s oft-tuxedo-clad British super-spy James Bond [pictured left] on the big screen. He nailed Bond’s simultaneously lethal and romantic appeal with such effortless hard-edged charisma that every actor to slip into Bond’s formal wear since Connery’s reign has been regarded with an arguably unfair skepticism. As perfect as Connery was for the role, though, he notoriously wanted free from it well before the Bond series’ producers were willing to let him go from the franchise.
Luckily, once he wriggled out from the franchise’s clutches, he brought his manly presence and distinct, much-imitated voice to several-decades-spanning cable-TV staples that have nothing to do with Agent 007, such as “Murder on the Orient Express,” “The Man Who Would Be King,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Rock,” and “The Untouchables” [pictured right], for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar playing the crusty right-hand man to Kevin Costner’s heroic Eliot Ness.
