More than fifty years after he first played the role of James Bond, Sean Connery’s arched eyebrow is as much an icon of 007 as his martini. But Connery almost didn’t get the part. In 1999, he sat down with 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft and explained that the author of the Bond series had wanted a bigger star.
“Ian Flemming wanted Cary Grant, and then he wanted Trevor Howard,” Connery said. “Well, their salaries would have taken care of the budget.”
Luckily for Connery, the movie’s makers only had $1 million to spend on the film, so they settled on the Scotsman.
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