He may be just an actor but he’s probably the greatest living Scotsman in my lifetime. All the other ones who come to mind emigrated to the Commonwealth Nations: Alexander Graham Bell (Canada despite his part in creating AT&T) and a handful of Aussie rock bands (Men at Work, AC/DC). No wait there’s Simple Minds, Del Amitri/Justin Currie and bis.
Here’s one horrible thing I realized, why was his character “Spanish” (he was born well before the Romans even labelled the place Hispania) in Highlander while a French guy was cast as a Scotsman?
Personally, Connery is the first well-balanced movie action hero. His James Bond wasn’t as cartoonish as Roger Moore and he fit the part like its creator Ian Fleming: a Scotsman doing the English’s dirty work by killing their enemies. Outside the legendary spy, he has done other great stuff I have always loved, namely Time Bandits. He has had his share of awfulness too: The Avengers will remain first and foremost. Connery definitely carried the lightweights Costner and Garcia in that awful, inaccurate yawner from the Eighties…The Untouchables, PU!
However, Sean will be immortalized for his voice thanks to the numerous Jeopardy! skits from SNL. Suck it Trebek! An excellent, serious demonstration can seen in the mediocre flick Dragonheart. Often I have wanted to have a friendly dragon in my D&D campaign who spoke like Draco. Course, I’d avoid the easy, cheap SNL shots to stay calibrated because 20 years ago a British comedian said the key to imitating Connery was to pretend you’re reading his grocery list: half a pound of coffee, decaffeinated.