Fleming, for his part, not only initially rejected the choice out of attachment to Grant’s figure, but also on grounds of chauvinism and class: Bond had to be played by an Englishman of good education (read: of aristocratic origin) and by no means by a Scotsman son of a laborer and a maid. Connery found it crude: “It’s not what I imagined the character would be,” or “I want Commander Bond, not too big a stunt double.” Those were some of the phrases the writer used to express his prejudices in a But 007’s father was not immune to Connery’s charms and, like everyone else, was also captivated by his magnetic screen presence. So much so that in the novel You Only Live Twice, the first he wrote after him. premiere of The Satanic Dr. No, he decided to add a Scottish heritage to the lineage of his creature. A somewhat childish gesture that seems to be made to reassure himself, legitimizing the fact that it was an actor of that nationality who played his character. that until that novel exhibited an impeccably English pedigree.
In general, all the official James Bond films were a public success. In fact, 21 of the 24 released so far are on the select list of the 1000 most profitable films in history published by the Box Office Mojo website. Two of them even rank in the Top 50: Operation Thunder (1965) at 32nd place and 48th Golden Fingers (1964). In both the protagonist is Connery. In addition, five of the six titles in which the Scotsman plays 007 are among the 10 most profitable in the saga: to the two already mentioned we must add You Only Live Twice (1967), From Russia with Love (1963) and Diamonds are Eternal (1971). The only one that remains outside the Top 10 is The Satanic Dr. No, which nevertheless was the third most watched film in the United States during 1963, the year of release in that country, behind the monumental Cleopatra (Jospeh Mankiewicz) and the comedy The world’s crazy, crazy, crazy (Stanley Kramer). In case more data were needed, Never Say Never Again (1983), the seventh film in which Connery dressed as Bond (although this time outside of the official saga), is also among the thousand highest grossing films in the history of cinema.
The Scotsman’s departure from the Bond universe was traumatic. His bond with Broccoli was broken and the actor took it upon himself to ground him whenever he could, even saying that the producer was “the best villain in the saga.” TO
