AFI gives actor 34th annual life achievement award

Hollywood's Kodak Theatre was shaken and stirred Thursday night to honor a lifetime of entertainment from cinema's first 007.

The American Film Institute bestowed its 34th annual Life Achievement award on Sean Connery on June 8 while Tinseltown's elite showed up to support, fawn and praise, report news sources.

Apparently recovered from his kidney tumor surgery earlier in the year, the man himself thanked the audience for "one hell of an evening."

"I got my big break when I was five years old, and it's taken more than 70 years to realize it," he added. "At five I learned to read, and I would not be standing here without the books, plays and scripts."

Among the notables in the audience were directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and actors Harrison Ford, Andy Garcia and Mike Myers -- who honored the Scottish actor by wearing a kilt.

The AFI Life Achievement Award began in 1973 and has been given to various people in the film industry "whose work has stood the test of time" although in 1993, this was amended to "individuals with active careers and work of significance yet to be accomplished."

Connery is in good company. A sampling of the directors honored includes John Ford, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Other actors honored include James Cagney, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Gregory Peck, Sidney Poitier, Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand.

Connery, 75, was born Thomas Connery in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1930. Before breaking into acting, Connery worked in various jobs as a milkman, part of the Merchant Navy, a nude art model, a coffin polisher and a body builder.

From his role in 1959's children's fantasy "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," Connery was cast in 1962 in the trademark role of Secret Agent James Bond. His 007 films include "Dr. No," "From Russia with Love," "Goldfinger" and "Never Say Never Again."

He won a supporting actor Oscar for 1987's "The Untouchables" and received his Knighthood Britain's Queen Elizabeth in 1999.

Although it's been rumored that he was planning to retire from acting, Connery hasn't ruled out reprising his role playing Ford's father in an "Indiana Jones" sequel.