Sean Connery

Born: 25 August 1930
Where: Edinburgh, Scotland

The Oscar-winning Scotsman has been the only James Bond actor to revoke the licence to kill and enjoy the same degree of popularity outside the role.

Connery made six seminal Bond films - Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever - over a nine year period.

However, he has also won acclaim for other movies including The Anderson Tapes, The Man Who Would Be King, Outland, The Name of The Rose and Indiana Jones.

But perhaps the Scottish nationalist's crowning glory was winning a best supporting actor Oscar for the part of Jim Malone in Brian De Palma's crime thriller The Untouchables.

Connery, who regularly tops the polls as the lady's favourite and never loses his Scottish accent, regardless of role, dropped out of school at 13.

After a three-year stint in the navy he took on odd jobs as a milkman, bricklayer, lifeguard and even nude model before representing Scotland in the 1950 Mr Universe contest.

He travelled about performing in plays before making his on-screen debut in Lilacs In The Spring in 1954.

After being noticed in a couple of small films, he beat big names to play super-spy James Bond in Dr No. To the purist, Connery's animal grace tempered with a hint of ice-cold cruelty made the best 007...a world away from Dalton's theatrics and Moore's camp.

But, despite Bond taking him to iconic status, he tried to escape Ian Fleming's Walther PPK-packing British agent again and again.

Diverse roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie and The Molly Maguires didn't help too much, but Connery did some of his best work with director Sidney Lumet, such as The Anderson Tapes, Murder On The Orient Express and Family Business.

He had a 12-year break from Bond after Diamonds Are Forever before donning a toupee for the aptly titled Never Say Never Again.

He followed it up with the popular fantasy film Highlander and The Name of the Rose before eventually earning an Oscar as veteran Chicago cop Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables.

He began to take on more fatherly roles, with the third instalment of Indiana Jones, a cameo as Richard the Lionheart in Robin Hood, Prince Of Thieves and strong performances in The Hunt For Red October, The Russia House and Medicine Man.

In Medicine Man he also made his debut as an executive producer, a role he took on again in Rising Sun, in which he teamed up with Wesley Snipes.

On top of mediaeval epics First Knight and Dragonheart, Connery also began to show an interest in contemporary action dramas, with Just Cause and The Rock.

He shocked in Entrapment, playing an ageing cat burglar who wooed a Catherine Zeta-Jones nearly 40 years his junior, before earning critical kudos for his turn as a reclusive author in Finding Forrester.

He lives in Marbella, Spain, conveniently close to a golf course, with second wife Micheline - who chose to ignore a 1987 interview in which he declared it was fine to hit a woman to keep them in line.

His only child, Jason, followed him into acting.

He recently played the role of Allan Quatermain in the visually stunning big screen adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.