Charismatic actor Sir Sean Connery (1930–2020) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Fiercely proud of his Scottish heritage, he grew up poor, enlisted in the British Navy at 16, and placed third in the 1953 Mr. Universe competition as a bodybuilder.

"If you fear nothing, you love nothing. If you love nothing, what joy can there be in life?" he once asked.

Cast in Dr. No (1962) as the irrepressible spy 007, Connery once confessed, "I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him."

Steven Spielberg, who directed Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, said, "There are only seven stars left in the world, and Sean Connery is one of them."

With the $1.25 million he earned from Diamonds Are Forever, Connery established a charitable trust to help combat unemployment and poverty in his hometown.

"Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith. For without fear of the devil there is no need for God," said the actor of more than 70 films.

He received an Academy Award in 1987 for his role in The Untouchables. "I always wanted to be an old man with a good face, like Hitchcock or Picasso," he reflected. In 1989, People named him the Sexiest Man Alive. A decade later, New Woman crowned him Sexiest Man of the Century, ahead of Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson.

On Connery's lasting appeal, film critic Pauline Kael explained, "Women want to meet him and men want to be him. I don't know any man since Cary Grant that men have wanted to be so much."

"Most people have a full measure of life and most people watch it slowly drip away," Connery said. "But if you can summon it all up in one time and one place, you can accomplish something glorious."