To celebrate the launch of UWE Bristol’s Professor Andrew Spicer’s new book Sean Connery: Acting, Stardom and National Identity, we present a series of film screenings and an illustrated talk on the Scottish star.

Sean Connery was one of a select few stars who have become an instantly recognisable cultural icon whose image and distinctive voice have penetrated deeply into global popular culture and public consciousness.

With films from across his career, this season examines both Connery the ‘star’ (a carefully curated myth developed over 40 years) as well as Connery the person (including the gender politics of his persona, his history of misogyny, and his political activism).

Best known as the screen’s ‘first’ James Bond, over a forty-year career he played a wide range of memorable roles, including an insubordinate military convict in The Hill (1965), an ageing, over-the-hill Robin Hood in Robin and Marian (1976), a British soldier on a mission to become king in The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and as an ex-con thwarting a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz in The Rock (1996).

You can see all of these film as part of the season as well as joining Professor Spicer for his illustrated talk on Connery (Sun 4 Sept), where he will discuss his career, including his television work, his long struggle to escape ‘Bondage’, and the gradual development of his persona, marred by his misogyny.

---