(Credits: Far Out / Mieremet, Rob / Anefo)
Wed 1 October 2025 10:30, UK
Not many actors truly retire. They say they’re stepping away to focus on other things, but that promise rarely lasts longer than a few years; however, one of the most famous stars to call it quits and mean it was the late, great Sir Sean Connery.
After setting in motion one of the greatest spy film franchises of all time and then excavating even more success with the likes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Rock, the silky-voiced sensation decided he’d had enough of show business in 2006.
The straw that broke the Scotsman’s back was 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which was akin to The Avengers but teaming up literary characters across genres instead of superheroes. Connery played Allan Quartermain, the hero of H Rider Haggard’s seminal adventure story King Solomon’s Mines, and was joined by one-half of Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll played by Jason Flemyng, Dracula’s prey Mina Harker played by Peta Wilson, and the devil’s portrait Dorian Grey played by Stuart Townsend in his battle against Richard Roxborough’s Prof Moriarty. It’s just as cheesy as it sounds.
Given the finished product and the fact that he’d turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings to take part in it, you can understand why the former Bond was so upset with the movie. As he explained to The Times, he also had another major gripe with the movie, its director, Stephen Norrington.
“It was a nightmare. The director should never have been given $185million. On the first day I realised he was insane,” he revealed, “The only one he was scared of was me, he said, ‘Do you want to hit me?’ I said, ‘Don’t tempt me’. The experience had a great influence on me; it made me think about showbiz. And I have had other problems: people who raise money on me, then cut me out of it… I get fed up dealing with idiots.”
Norrington got his start working as a makeup artist, with Split Second and Aliens to his credit, before he made his directorial debut with the cult sci-fi horror Death Machine. It looked like his career was on the up-and-up, as his next film was the pre-MCU Marvel movie Blade. He also played a version of Michael Morbius in the movie’s alternative ending, which means that “Morbin’ Time” actually arrived 24 years early.
Unfortunately, not even ‘The Living Vampire’ could withstand a run-in with 007. Connery and Norrington clashed so badly that the latter didn’t even attend the film’s opening party. When asked where he was, the leading man reportedly replied, “Check the local asylum”. Between this, increased studio interference, and a rushed release window to avoid going head-to-head with Master and Commander, Norrington quickly found himself burnt out and hasn’t made another feature film since.
Actors and directors have disagreements all the time, but it’s incredibly rare that they fall out so badly that both never work again. Connery’s experiences with Norrington left him so upset that he decided it was time to drop the curtain on his truly legendary career. Well, with the exception of the truly bizarre animated film, Sir Billi. But that’s a story for another time.
Related Topics