Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born August 25,1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland) better known simply as Sean Connery, is a Scottish film actor who has starred in many films and is best known as the original cinematic James Bond. His birth name was Thomas Connery. The name "Sean" was added later as a stage name.
Connery is known for his trademark Scottish accent and his good looks, repeatedly being mentioned as one of the most attractive men alive by magazines even after he was considerably older than more conventional sex symbols.
Connery was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He joined the Royal Navy after leaving school, and after being discharged on medical grounds went on to a succession of jobs, including labourer and lifeguard. He competed for Scotland in the Mr. Universe competition in 1953, which led to work on the stage, TV, and eventually film.
He has long advocated greater independence for Scotland, and has supported the Scottish National Party, a centre-left nationalist political party, financially and through personal appearances despite himself living in the Bahamas. This support is illustrated by a comment from his official website:
"While it is generally accepted that his support of Scotland's independence and the Scottish National Party delayed his knighthood for many years, his commitment to Scotland has never wavered. Politics in the United Kingdom often has more intrigue than a James Bond plot. While Scotland is not yet independent, she does have a new parliament. Sir Sean campaigned hard for the yes vote during the Scottish Referendum that created the new Scottish Parliament. He believes firmly that the Scottish Parliament will grow in power and that Scotland will be independent within his lifetime." [1] (http://www.seanconnery.com/biography/knighthood/)
Connery used part of the fees from his work as James Bond to establish a charity to support deprived children in Edinburgh as well as Scottish Film production. These charitable works would have earned him a Knighthood much earlier but it was revealed in 1997 that the award had been declined due to concern over statements that Connery made in interviews that in certain circumstances that physical abuse of a partner was acceptable.
Connery received the Legion D'Honneur in 1991. He received Kennedy Center Honors from the United States in 1999. He was knighted on July 5, 2000, wearing a hunting tartan kilt of the MacLean of Duart clan. Sean Connery received the Orden de Manuel Amador Guerrero from Mireya Moscoso, former president of Panama on 11 March 2003.
He was married to Australian-born actress Diane Cilento from 1962 until 1973; they are the parents of actor Jason Connery. Jason was educated at Millfield School in Somerset. He has been married to French-Moroccan artist Micheline Roquebrune Connery since 1975.
In September 2004, media reports indicated that Connery intended to retire following the production of Josiah's Canon, which is to be released in 2005. However, in a December 2004 interview with The Scotsman newspaper, the 74-year-old actor denied he was retiring and said he still plans to do more movies, but that he is taking a break from acting in order to concentrate on writing his autobiography.
|
Category: Metal Horse - Keng Wu
Leave comment
here
Steve McQueen
Born: 24 March 1930
Birthplace: Beech Grove, Indiana
Death: 7 November 1980 (cancer-induced heart attack)
Best Known As: Supercool star of Bullitt
Name at birth: Terrence Steven McQueen
McQueen's screen persona -- blue-eyed cool on the outside, rebellious turmoil on the inside -- made him a box-office smash throughout the 1960s and early '70s. He was in the early TV western Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61) and the cult horror film The Blob (1958). But it was his work in The Magnificent Seven (1960, with Yul Brynner) and the WWII epic The Great Escape (1963, with James Garner) which established himself as a lean, laconic action star. He received an Oscar nomination in 1966 for The Sand Pebbles, but he remains best known for The Great Escape and for the 1968 cops-and-car-chases flick Bullitt. He died at a clinic in Mexico in 1980, after undergoing surgery for cancer.
McQueen was married to actress Ali McGraw, his co-star in 1972's The Getaway... That film was remade in 1994 with then-married couple Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger in the roles first played by McQueen and McGraw... McQueen took an unorthodox approach to fighting the cancer that eventually killed him. According to an obituary by the Associated Press, McQueen "died of a heart attack... at a clinic in Juarez, Mexico, one day after surgeons removed a five-pound tumor from his abdomen." The same report said McQueen "had fought a strong battle since August to overcome the cancer through a therapy program that included the controversial drug laetrile, coffee enemas, large doses of vitamins and intramuscular injections of animal cells."
|
Category: Metal Horse - Keng Wu
Leave comment
here | |
he Sixty-Year Chinese Cycle directory:
