Why You Don't See Sean Connery Onscreen Anymore

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Sean Connery is basically a living legend. For starters, his name will always be inseparable from James Bond, thanks to the 1962-1983 run that saw him starring in seven films as the suave secret agent. Later in his career, he appeared in critically acclaimed films like The Untouchables, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and popular franchises like Indiana Jones. His achievements have garnered some serious accolades. He has been voted both "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure," and in 1999, People declared him the "Sexiest Man of the Century." And to top it all off, he was officially knighted in 2000.

Connery worked his way up from his first gig as a milkman in Edinburgh to become one of the world's most accomplished actors. It's the kind of rags to riches story that would inspire any young artist, but today, Connery is far more likely to be spending time with his family at home in the Bahamas than rubbing elbows with other big names on the red carpet. In addition, several scandals may have prompted him to stay out of the spotlight. Here's why you don't see Sean Connery at the movies anymore — and why you probably won't catch him on the silver screen again.

Connery never explicitly stated his reason for retirement, but it seems that a number of different factors made him decide it was finally time to hang up his hat. His last film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, was panned by critics, and rather than picking up one more role to end his career on a better note, he chose to follow his initial instinct to walk away.

Connery was very frustrated with his experience working with director Stephen Norrington on Gentlemen, going as far as to say that Norrington should have been "arrested for insanity." Connery stated that he did his best with his role, but he knew that the entire production was going off the rails, and that critics and audiences alike probably wouldn't be too pleased. He said that he got "heavily involved in editing and trying to salvage" the end result; his efforts may have helped somewhat, but overall, the film was considered a flop. Not wanting to deal with that type of stress anymore, Connery walked away from Hollywood and hasn't really looked back.

Toward the end of his acting career, Connery became exasperated with the film industry as a whole — and he skewered the directors and studios who he saw as cranking out lackluster films and wasting great talent. "I'm fed up with the idiots... the ever-widening gap between people who know how to make movies and the people who green-light the movies," Connery lamented in a 2005 interview.

Years later in an interview with Heat Vision, he elaborated on his previous statement, saying that unfortunately, these "idiots" had "cornered the market in the film industry." He went on to name George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh, and Sean Penn as people who were working hard to produce more creative, high-quality films rather than pouring money into box office bombs or lazy, uninspired scripts. It's true that Hollywood seems to be oversaturated with remakes and sequels these days. The industry has transformed completely since Connery started acting, and he's clearly unhappy with the current state of things.

Connery didn't just back out of acting because he was so disappointed in his experience shooting The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He also wasn't satisfied with any of the parts he was being offered at that point in his career. No matter how talented an actor is, it's a given that casting directors will undoubtedly see them differently as they get older — and that's exactly what happened to Connery. Michael Caine offered up some more details about the reasons behind his friend's retirement, telling the Telegraph, "The movie business retired him because he didn't want to play small parts about old men and they weren't offering him any young parts in romantic leads."

Connery is hardly the first actor to struggle with this dilemma, and he even said that it contributed to his decision to turn down the Indiana Jones offer. "It was not that generous a part," Connery told Heat Vision. "The father of Indy was kind of really not that important." Unfortunately, there just aren't as many fulfilling roles in Hollywood for older actors.

Unfortunately, exile status isn't Connery's only source of public tax drama: In 2010, he and his wife were investigated for property fraud in Marbella, Spain. After the sale of their Marbella property, Casa Malibu, they got involved with a development company that built more than 70 luxury apartments on the site without permission from local authorities. To make matters worse, a huge portion of the profits was supposedly sent abroad to be stashed away in tax havens. Although Connery initially claimed that he was willing to cooperate with authorities, he also threatened to sue for damages.

In 2015, the couple was back in the spotlight again when Roquebrune was officially charged with Spanish property tax fraud for the sale of those illegal apartments. Connery was cleared of any charges, but the embarrassment certainly didn't help him move past the controversy over his tax exile status.

Although Connery is still greatly admired by many, some of his past comments about women would give anyone pause, and it's tough to interpret these quotes as anything other than sexist. Allegations from his first wife, actress Diane Cilento, certainly didn't paint him in a better light.

In a 1965 interview with Playboy, Connery was quoted as saying, "I don't think there is anything particularly wrong in hitting a woman, though I don't recommend you do it in the same way you hit a man." He made similar comments in a 1993 interview with Vanity Fair, flat out stating that sometimes when women argue with men, "They want a smack." Connery claimed that his words were taken out of context, but in 2006, Cilento published her autobiography, in which she wrote that he had physically and mentally abused her. Connery denied all of her allegations, but his previous comments looked even worse after Cilento's book was published.

Connery even canceled an appearance at the Holyrood Festival of Politics in 2006 because he was worried that he would be questioned about his relationship with Cilento. He went on to say, "I don't believe that any level of abuse of women is ever justified under any circumstances," but for some, the apology came a little too late.

So how does Sean Connery spend his days now that he is retired? He has all the time in the world to spend indulging in his love of golf, which originated when he was filming the 1964 Bond movie Goldfinger. The film includes a scene in which Bond and the movie's villain, Auric Goldfinger, basically have a showdown on a golf course. While practicing his golf game for the film, Connery got hooked on the sport. "I began to see golf as a metaphor for living," he wrote in Being a Scot, "for in golf you are basically on your own, competing against yourself and always trying to do better."

Today, Connery's home in the Bahamas is actually located on a golf course, and according to his son Jason Connery, he can still hit a hole in one. So while you won't find Connery at movie premieres anymore, you might catch him playing golf in paradise. It's definitely not a bad way to spend retirement.