Sean Connery’s amazing generosity during his final James Bond performance ‘Very sweet’ | Films | Entertainment

Sir Sean Connery played James Bond in six of the official James Bond films in Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever.

He returned to the role in 1971 after his agent George Lazenby turned down more 007 films after his only outing in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Connery was paid a record salary of $1.25 million plus two films of his choice to return to when producers failed to find a new Bond.

But in 1983, Connery played Bond again on the big screen in the unofficial tour, Never Say Never Again. The Thunderball remake went up against Roger Moore’s Octopussy the same year.

It might surprise some Bond fans to hear that Connery played Bond a few more times after that.

First he showed 007 in a video message to the future M Ralph Fiennes on his birthday. The two actors co-starred in the 1998 flop The Avengers at the time. However, a few years later he voiced Bond again for the 2005 video game version of From Russia with Love.

Connery was living in the Bahamas at the time he agreed to record the voice at Compass Point Studios in Nassau with sound engineer Terry Manning.Express.co.uk previously spoke to Bond expert Mark Edlitz, author of The Many Lives of James Bond and The Lost Adventures of James Bond.

He said: “One day after Connery recorded his lines, the sound engineer checked the tape. However, the engineer did not hear the star’s voice during playback. For some reason, Connery’s entire day’s work was missing. White.”

Manning called a panicked EA Games producer but assured them he would be able to sort it out. Fortunately, the sound engineer had worked with the original 007 star for many years so he knew he could count on the Bond star.

Edlitz said: “The engineer called Connery and the actor came back and recorded the whole day’s work for free. It was a generous thing. Incidentally, the reason Connery played Bond again was because his grandchildren loved video games and he thought they would like them. Very sweet.”

He added: “If you take out the gameplay and put the animated scenes together you have the start of an animated James Bond film.”

At the time, Connery said of remaking Bond for the video game From Russia with Love: “As an artist, I see this as another way to explore the creative process. Video games are a very popular form of entertainment today and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they all fit together.”

Mark Edlitz’s books The Many Lives of James Bond and The Lost Adventures of James Bond are out now.