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Former James Bond Sean Connery has one son- 45-year-old Jason Connery. According to Sean’s ex-wife, the curmudgeonly actor has made it clear to Jason that he will never get any of his money -a fortune estimated at $170 million USD.
According to his former wife, Diane Cilento, the former James Bond actor told his son Jason that he would never receive a penny of his £85million fortune.
She said Connery was determined that Jason should pursue a career and earn his own living, rather than sponging off his father.
But Miss Cilento, who was married to Connery for 11 years before their bitter divorce in 1973, said Connery’s determination to cut Jason off financially meant they had a difficult relationship.
She claims that at one stage Jason, who now works as an actor and film director, threatened to change his name after Connery accused him of cashing in on his father’s fame.
Australian-born Miss Cilento told the Sunday Times: ‘Sean said, “You only got this (acting) job because your name’s Connery.” ‘Jason said, “Well, I’ll change it to something else.” Sean said, “If you do that I’ll f****** kill you.”
‘Jason loves him but Sean has a problem about relationships, as everybody round him knows. Jason is a very devoted son - when Sean is sick he rushes there. They play golf together.’
Connery, 77, is due next month to publish his long-awaited autobiography, Being A Scot.
It details his upbringing in the industrial end of Edinburgh by his mother and father, a cleaner and truck driver respectively.
There was no bathroom and the family had to use a communal toilet outside.
Aged 14 he earned 21 shillings (£1.05) a week as a barrow pusher before working as a lorry driver, labourer, coffin polisher and artist’s model.
Before landing the part of James Bond in the 1962 film Dr No, Connery spent some time as a milkman.
Jason, 45, is Connery’s only child and developed an interest in acting while a boarder at Gordonstoun.
He was accepted to the Bristol Old Vic drama school and the Perth Repertory Company, where, as well as acting he worked as an assistant stage manager to earn his Equity card.
According to friends, Jason, who is best known for the title role in the 1985 television series Robin of Sherwood, was so poor in the early 1980s that he relied on handouts from other actors to survive.
Jason, who has recently finished directing his second film, an action thriller which stars Cuba Gooding Jnr and Ray Winstone, refused to comment on his mother’s revelations.
Connery, who lives in the Bahamas, has also declined to reveal if his son will inherit any of his fortune.
I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, it’s Sean Connery’s money and he earned it. It’s his right to choose what happens to it after he’s gone. And after seeing so many celebrity spawns walking around like their God’s gift to the world, I think it’s commendable for a big star to make it clear to his kids that there are no free rides in life. But it sounds like Jason isn’t looking for special treatment anyway. And why give him a hard time about his last name being Connery? If casting people want to hire him because of that, how is that Jason’s fault? What I have a problem with is these parents who had a difficult childhood who somehow hold it against their own kids that they’ve had an easy life. Isn’t that what we want for our kids- why we work so hard? And while it’s true that Jason never had to push wheelbarrows or deliver milk, he did have to grow up with a meanie for a dad. I’d say he deserves something for that.
Jason Connery is shown at a photocall for the film Private Moments at Apart Gallery in London on 12/13/04. Credit: Vince Maher/WENN. Sean Connery is shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival premiere of The Edge of Love on 6/18/08. Credit: Solarpix / PR Photos
