The iconic original James Bond, Sean Connery, died at home in the Bahamas on Nov. 1, 2020. Across his long and storied film career, he’d had numerous co-stars who were saddened by his passing, including fellow leading man in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harrison Ford.
Ford released a funny and touching statement about Connery’s passing on Monday.
“He was my father … not in life … but in Indy 3,” Ford said in a statement. “You don’t know pleasure until someone pays you to take Sean Connery for a ride in the sidecar of a Russian motorcycle bouncing along a bumpy, twisty mountain trail and getting to watch him squirm. God we had fun — if he’s in heaven, I hope they have golf courses. Rest in peace dear friend.”
Though Connery was a mere 12 years Ford’s senior, he played Indy’s dad Henry Jones in Last Crusade, and part of what made the movie work was lively chemistry between the actors that completely sold the relationship, despite their actual closeness in age.
Connery was best known as the first James Bond, and perhaps the actor who left the strongest impression in the role until Daniel Craig, who doesn’t resemble Connery but brought a similar mix of roughness and elegance to the role.
Other Bonds like Pierce Brosnan paid tribute to his memory as well, with Brosnan tweeting that Connery “cast a long shadow of cinematic splendor that will live on forever.”
Connery’s wife, Micheline Roquebrune, told the Daily Mail that the actor’s final days were tough, as he “had dementia and it took its toll on him.”
But she added that Connery “got his final wish to slip away without any fuss,” passing away peacefully in his sleep. RIP.