{"id":16216,"date":"2018-09-03T08:34:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T04:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=16216"},"modified":"2019-01-14T15:23:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T11:23:47","slug":"the-original-bond-sean-connery-now-88-has-a-kenya-connect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/the-original-bond-sean-connery-now-88-has-a-kenya-connect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Original Bond, Sean Connery, now 88, has a Kenya Connect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter from New Delhi <\/u><\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

The original James Bond 007, Sean Connery, celebrated his 88th<\/sup> birthday on 25 August<\/em> in secluded retirement, as Kul Bhushan recalls his Kenya connection<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

In 1973, Sean Connery arrived in Nairobi for the Kenya Open Golf tournament at Muthaiga Golf Club and I had a long interview and spent some quality time with the famous actor on a leisurely Sunday.<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

Sean Connery meets the press in Nairobi<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n

“That\u2019s James Bond!” cried a number of fans on spotting him with his long side-burns at Nairobi Embakasi Airport when he walked the tarmac, in the company of two smiling air hostesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hero of the Bond phenomena, probably the greatest rage of the Sixties and the Seventies, Connery recalled how he rocketed to stardom after shooting Tarzan films in Thika in 1960.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relaxing at Muthaiga Golf Club later in the morning, he told me, “We were here 13 years ago on Tarzan films when I heard that Ian Fleming had an idea on what his hero should be like.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Back in Europe, I learnt that they wanted to test screen personalities for the part. I said I would not submit myself for the test to find out if I was okay but I still got the part,\u201d he recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked what role he was playing in the Tarzan film being shot in Kenya, Sean said, \u201cI was the villain. Quite a few years have passed since then and I am interested to see what\u2019s happened here.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Queried on how he fitted the role of Bond, he replied in a very Scottish accent which he subdued in his films, “I played the part! But now I have left it – on a permanent basis.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But still people call you James Bond, don\u2019t they?<\/span><\/p>\n

He was quick to retort, “You haven\u2019t called me James so far.”<\/span><\/p>\n

How did he do all those superhuman acts of his mindboggling films?<\/span><\/p>\n

“Stamina! But seriously, I end up by doing only about 50 percent of those stunts. We have stand-ins who go through some of the rougher stuff,” he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

What hobbies do you have beside your work?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGolf in the UK, I have a handicap of seven.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Very appropriate, I thought. “After the Kenya Open Golf championship, I will be holidaying here and if I see something that might fit into my forthcoming movies, I will all certainly include it but certain filming facilities are lacking here.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Recalling his pre-Bond days, he said he had acted on the stage, television and films. “I have played all sorts of parts. In Tarzan films, Alexander the Great, Macbeth, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Euripides, Arthur Miller stuff, and many others before turning to Bond.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you here on a secret mission? “No, only a sporting one.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as we finished talking, Chandu Vasani, an ex-Nation<\/em> photographer joined us. \u201cHello, how are you. I remember you,\u201d said Sean. At once, he recognized the young studio owner in Thika who invited the Tarzan film unit to a curry dinner so many years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

After retiring in 2003, he rarely appears in public and spends his time with his grand-children. He was last photographed in New York a year ago while leaving a barber\u2019s shop, helped by a caretaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

But his charisma remains as he was approached for an autograph by a fan who recognized him. But he moved on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kul Bhushan worked as a newspaper Editor in Nairobi for over three decades and now lives in New Delhi<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 31 August 2018<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter from New Delhi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":16220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[13250,459,13248,13249],"class_list":["post-16216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-james-bond","tag-kul-bhushan","tag-sean-connery","tag-tarzan-films"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Sean-Connery-1-4.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-4dy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}