Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in his mouth — and no one knows this better than Scottish actor Sir Sean Connery, who has lived the rags-to-riches story.
Connery was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, to poor parents and lived in a house which had no bathroom, only a communal toilet outside.
The actor, the youngest in the family, slept in the bottom drawer of a wardrobe till he was 8. Things only got worse when the Second World War broke out.
Utter poverty
“I was 9 when the Second World War broke out. We were living in Edinburgh in utter poverty,” Daily Express quoted him as saying.
He had limited education, leaving school at 13 to go to work as a milkman with St Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society.
“I educated myself, which may be why I still sometimes feel like a little boy when I meet intellectuals,” he has said.
Employment records from 1944 show that at the age of 14, Connery earned 21 shillings a week as a barrow pusher.
By 16, he had his own milk cart. At 17, he joined the Royal Navy as an able seaman.
Two years later, he was discharged on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer and returned to Edinburgh, where he started working in a steel mill, delivering coal and polishing coffins.
In late 1951, he landed a part-time job as a stagehand at the King’s Theatre. He was also in demand as a model at the Edinburgh College of Art after he took up bodybuilding.
It was his impressive physique that finally provided him a route out of working-class life. In 1953, at the age of 22, he came third for the junior section of the Mr Universe contest in London.
While in town, he heard a report that young men were being auditioned for a production of South Pacific at the Theatre Royal.
Unflinching focus
“How much am I getting?” was his first question on being chosen.
“That doesn’t concern me,” sniffed the producer.
“Well,” the gruff Scotsman said, “it concerns me.”
Connery revealed that there had been a time when Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, had offered him the opportunity to play football, with a contract worth £25 (Dh183) a week, but refused as it was not a lasting job.
“I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30 and I was already 23. I decided to be an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves,” he has said.
Regarding how he became James Bond, he recalled how he almost lost the role, as his broad shoulders and Scottish accent led the creator of 007, Ian Fleming, to insist that the burly Connery was not at all like the James Bond he had envisaged.
They met in the Sixties after the young actor won the career-defining role following a fledgling career on stage and television, including a part in a BBC production of Anna Karenina.
“I thought we were getting Commander Bond, not an overgrown stuntman,” Fleming is said to have mused as he analysed Connery’s muscled 6-foot-2 frame.
But Connery had the requisite mix of attraction and aggression needed for the part and eventually won Fleming over.
He attributed his success to his upbringing and his inner strength.
“What I do know is that I’ve had an extraordinary life. What’s more, I started out with no qualifications. And however good life is to me, I never forget that. I never forget where I came from and that’s my strength,” he said.
Schooled by life
The Scot says of the influences that shaped him: “I got my education in the great school of life. I started so low I could only go up. My experiences have made me the man I am today,” he added.
Connery provided this fascinating insight into his life while discussing his long-awaited memoir Being A Scot, due to be published next month.
