11/03/2026
November 3, 1961 — Sean Connery is officially announced as the first actor to play James Bond.
As Bond Fans are currently laying in wait for the casting announcement of the new 007, let's flashback sixty-five years ago to when the world learned that Sean Connery would be the first actor to play Ian Fleming's famous secret agent in the Eon film series.
There wasn't exactly worldwide press attention at the first casting of 007 - certainly nothing like what followed and what Bond fans know today. No big press conferences or headlines around the world that had everyone talking.
It's become a legendary story. Initially, Bond producers Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman wanted an established star to play their James Bond. The problem was stars like Cary Grant and James Mason wouldn't sign a multi-picture deal. That opened up the role to unknown actors and auditions.
Connery wasn't a complete unknown actor. He had been working in British theater and television for year when he walked in and met with Broccoli and Saltzman. he famously refused to do a traditional screen test for the role. He supposedly said, "I'm not making tests. I've been acting for eight years. Take it or leave it."
Connery's confidence really impressed them.
It was at the end of their meeting a key moment happened. Broccoli and Saltzman watched Connery leave the building and were captivated by the way he moved. His physical grace and swagger. Saltzman later said, "“He had this panther-like walk and smirk that said he knew exactly who Bond was, because he was Bond."
His movements weren't completely natural. A few days before his meeting for Bond Connery talked with his movement teacher, Pat Malmgren a Swedish dancer, for advice on how he should carry himself for the meeting. Malmgren told him, "Think about cat animals—lions lions, tigers, panthers— they are very loose."
Apparently that was the perfect advice.
The famous story goes is that Ian Fleming wasn't very enthusiastic about Connery's casting. He described Connery as an "unrefined roughneck" and an "overgrown stuntman". Essentialy, he was not his vision of the polished and suave secret agent he created.
However, despite that popular story, it was discovered that Fleming might not have thought Connery's casting was so bad after all. In a private letter he wrote to his friend/mistress Blance Blackwell before Connery was officially announced he would be playing 007. Fleming wrote about Connery and described him as "a real charmer - fairly unknown but a good actor with the right looks and physique".
So maybe Fleming's opinion was hot and cold about him. Either way, it's certain Fleming changed his mind after he saw some rough cuts of Dr. No. He said that while Connery wasn't the Bond he originally imagined, he would be "if I wrote the books over again".
Fleming even went so far to give the character a Scottish heritage in later books as a direct tribute to Connery's performance.
