The “stupid” decision Sean Connery made in the mid-1970s
Actor Sean Connery will forever be known to be the first ever James Bond, beginning with 007’s maiden film appearance with Dr. No in 1962. Connery went on to play Bond seven times, including the classic spy movies From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice, all of which were released in the 1960s.
By the time the mid-1970s rolled around, Connery already had a vast filmography. He took a break after the release of Sidney Lumet’s 1973 crime drama The Offence, but when he returned in 1974 with John Boorman’s science fiction movie Zardoz, rather than ease himself back into work, Connery put the pedal to the metal and performed in several films in quick succession.
During an interview with EW, Connery expressed that, in reflection, he made something of a “stupid” decision to work so often so quickly, noting the time he made three films directly after one another. In hindsight, it sounds like Connery perhaps pushed himself a bit too far, especially after taking a break for a few years prior.
“It’s a stupid scenario, doing three films one after another,” he said. “I did The Man Who Would Be King, The Wind and the Lion, and Robin and Marian all one after the other. It was like pushing a quart into a pint bottle. But when you find something you want to do, you do it.”
The Man Who Would Be King arrived in 1975, directed by John Huston and starring Michaele Caine and Christopher Plummer alongside Connery. It’s an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s 1988 novella of the same name and tells of two ex-officers in the British Army who set off on an adventure from 19th Century British India.
The Wind and the Lion was directed by John Milius and also arrived in 1975, with Connery starring alongside Candice Bergen, Brian Keith and John Huston. The epic adventure movie was loosely based on the Perdicaris incident of 1904, in which a Greek American and his stepson were kidnapped by a group of bandits in Tangiers.
Robin and Marian, as one can imagine, is a telling of the legend of Robin Hood. The film was released a year after the two aforementioned movies, directed by Richard Lester. Connery played Hood, while Audrey Hepburn played Lady Marian in her first return to the screen after an eight-year absence.
So Connery got straight back to work after his break in 1972. The only two films he starred in after Robin and Marian’s release in 1976 and before 1979’s The First Great Train Robbery were The Next Man and the aptly titled A Bridge Too Far, showing that he had largely burnt himself out. Connery went on to play in several films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but by that point, he had likely learned to slow down just a touch and not throw himself into things he would later regret.
