Sean Connery turns 90: Why he is the greatest James Bond of all

The Bond franchise propelled Sean Connery to riches and made him a star on par with the Beatles for much of the 1960s. Photo: Filepic

Sean Connery helped redefine movie stardom thanks to his role as James Bond, an impossibly suave super-spy with a taste for martinis that were shaken, not stirred. In films like Dr. No, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, the Scottish actor created a template for a fresh and exciting action hero, one whose womanising, hard-drinking ways and penchant to solve any dispute with the barrel of a Walther PPK presaged a new and more permissive era of on-screen sex and violence.

The man who would be 007 turned 90 on Aug 25 and has been off the silver screen since opting to retire in 2003 after appearing in the execrable The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. However, his legacy continues to reverberate - it can be felt in everything from Tom Cruise's globe-trotting Mission: Impossible alter-ego Ethan Hunt to Harrison Ford's quip-ready adventurer in the Indiana Jones films. Daniel Craig's darker take on Bond also owes a clear debt to Connery's interpretation of the Ian Fleming character.