Sean Connery

Dr. No in 1962 was a modestly budgeted British spy film. By Goldfinger in 1964 the series was a worldwide phenomenon and Sean Connery was one of the most recognisable men alive. He played the part seven times in total - Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, and finally Never Say Never Again in 1983.

The problem with defining a character that thoroughly is that the industry stops seeing anything else. Connery spent much of the seventies deliberately working against it, taking parts in films like The Man Who Would Be King in 1975 and The Name of the Rose in 1986 that had nothing to do with the tuxedo. It was a long campaign and for years it was not obviously working.

It resolved in 1987. The Untouchables gave him Jimmy Malone, an ageing Chicago beat cop, and it won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was fifty-seven. A career that many had quietly written off restarted at full speed - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, where he played Harrison Ford's father, then The Hunt for Red October in 1990, which took more than 200 million dollars worldwide.

That is the shape worth noticing. The Bond years made him famous; the years after made him an actor. Most performers get one of those. Connery is unusual in having the second act be the better one.