"It was hard to watch": Sean Connery's final days revealed
Sean Connery's final moments have been revealed in a new book, Connery, Sean Connery, which dives into his decades-long career and the obstacles he faced in life.
The Scottish actor, who rose to fame as the original James Bond, passed away on October 31, 2020, at the age of 90.
The book written by Herbie J Pilato, features never-before-published commentary from Connery's friend, Brendan Lynch about the actor's final days.
The Oscar winner struggled with dementia before his passing, and the book claims that Lynch was requested by Connery’s wife, Micheline Roquebrune, to visit his friend “as much as possible in his last days."
In the book, Lynch recalled: “Because he wasn’t well at all, Micheline did ask me to try and see a bit more of him in the end.”
“He didn’t want to have people that he didn’t know hanging around, so I would stop in to visit.”
“I was crying at times to see this mountain of a man — this monumental human achievement in such a terrible state — frail (mentally and physically) unable to carry on a conversation or finish off a sentence,” Lynch said.
“To see his body weak and flawed at the end… it was very sad. We tried to have a conversation. I tried to tell him what was going on in the sporting world, despite knowing that he wasn’t actually taking it all in.”
Pilato told Fox News Digital that he spoke to numerous other sources and co-stars to get a better understanding of the man behind the iconic character.
“Dementia is not just a mental issue. You’re affected physically in other ways… It affects everything. So it’s not just the mind. And to see someone who was so strong battling this disease — it was difficult," Pilato said.
“If anybody looked like a movie star, it was Sean Connery,” he shared. “But towards the end, when he was frail, it was hard to watch. It was hard to see that.”
According to the book, the actor's health was kept private “for some time" as he spent his final days surrounded by “sprawling golf courses, near wide-open silky sands and… clear blue Bahamian waters.”
Connery died in his sleep, and according to his wife it was exactly "what he wanted.”
“At least he died in his sleep, and it was just so peaceful,” she told The Daily Mail on Sunday.
“I was with him all the time, and he just slipped away. It was what he wanted."
Images: Getty