Synopsis
Traces Connery's move from the slums of Scotland to the silver screen, where his determination to avoid typecasting has extended his career and qualified him as one of the great movie stars.
Reviews
Yule traces Connery's journey from humble Edinburgh beginnings to his movie breakthrough as agent 007 and his subsequent success in "escaping Bondage" to carve out a career as a widely admired character actor. Connery's troubled first marriage to actress Diane Cilento, which the author calls a "destructive career race," is recounted, along with the details of his longtime friendship with film star Michael Caine, his betrayal by a trusted financial manager and his consuming interests in golf and money. The actor comes across as a dour, canny, wryly humorous Scot who can turn nasty (but not in the grand manner) when provoked; a hardworking, rough-hewn fellow without pretentions who watches his pennies and has strong if conventional views. This entertaining biography has certain flaws, which will not put off Connery's fans, however. Yule never asks his man how he chooses, prepares and performs his film roles. Also, he stresses that Connery has a highly developed feminine side, but the only evidence he offers is that the actor is said to write poetry. Connery, now 61, lives in Spain with his second wife, Micheline. Yule wrote Fast Fade: David Puttnam, Columbia Pictures and the Battle for Hollywood. Photos. Movie/Entertainment Book Club selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A life of Connery that's given its richness as much by the whimsically outspoken star himself as by Yule. Yule combines the detail of his David Puttnam bio (Fast Fade, 1988) with the focus on acting that enlivened his Al Pacino bio (Life on the Wire, 1991) and makes a satisfying study of Connery's lust to give his talent its head. A Scot often mistaken for an Irishman, Tommy Connery (Sean is a stage name) was raised in Edinburgh and early came into the family ulcer, which he has passed on to his son Jason, a rising young actor. The ulcer got Connery out of the Navy at 19. An early interest in body-building boosted his stage career and general charisma, though he was always magnetic. Small film roles as well as stage classics led to Dr. No and James Bond, who was a mixed blessing for Connery, bringing him wealth but also the burden of typecasting, against which he fought endlessly. This fight led to film roles that stretched him as a character actor but brought on a long list of flops. It took Connery nearly 30 years to find a blockbuster in the $100-million range (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) that wasn't a Bond film, although, ironically, Indiana Jones himself is a Bond clone. The Connery whom Yule draws is a charming chauvinist pig who has not led a monastic life, waves off women like flies, greatly prefers golf to gals. Much time and money have been given to Scottish charities and youth. He spends big but grips his pennies, has a vital interest in not being screwed. Everyone speaks of Connery as a joy to work with, a truly focused actor and the ultimate professional whose presence brings order--though incompetence makes him gripe loudly. Much, much better than average, and made so by Connery's wit. (Photos--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Author Yule ( Life on the Wire: The Life and Art of Al Pacino , LJ 10/1/91; Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam and the Munchausen Saga , LJ 10/15/91) has put together a thoroughly researched piece of work on the life of Connery. All the pieces of this actor's life fit perfectly, or rather they fit to the point where the reader has a better insight to how a boy named Tommy became the man Sean. The theories and the thoughts of those interviewed help paint a clearer picture of this complicated and talented Scotsman. While a life can't actually be told completely within the confines of 300 pages, this telling comes very close. Until Connery pens his own story, this will have to suffice. For popular film collections.
- Joe Michael Pierce, Texas State Technical Inst., Waco
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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