overlooked

“He moved like a panther.” This was the observation which convinced producers Albert R “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to cast Sean Connery, a relatively unknown young actor from Edinburgh, in the lead role of the first James Bond picture, 1962’s Dr No. It was this decision which was to forever change the face of movie stardom and blockbuster film-making. The choice was not, initially, a popular one with 007 author Ian Fleming; where his books had imagined Bond as the archetypal upper-class English gentleman, the gruff Scottish Connery brought a transatlantic insouciance and a palpably working-class edge to the…