007 and the Russian Spy

Shortly after the turn of the century, I was having dinner one evening with then Henson Executive Vice President and Head of Jim Henson Television Juliet Blake at a restaurant in Los Angeles.  We sat across from each other, and as we were talking I noticed that suddenly her eyes unavoidably disengaged from what I was saying, and went from looking at me to something behind me over my right shoulder.  Whatever it was, she was clearly distracted, but trying to politely pay attention to something I was rattling on about.

Then, a tall man stepped up to the end of the table where we were seated in the way a waiter might do.  But, Juliet’s eyes followed the man’s face right up to the table, and her expression turned to a smile.  The man leaned over and, in a dead serious tone, quietly said, ‘Don’t look, but there’s a Russian spy at that table right over there…’.  The voice was that of James Bond, and the man was Sean Connery.

Turns out, he and his wife, Micheline, were also there for dinner, and what’s more, Juliet knew them quite well.  We laughed at his joke, and Juliet was kind enough to introduce us.  After a moment of conversation, he apologized for interrupting our dinner (as though either of us would have minded!), and invited us to join he and his wife for a drink after our respective meals.

I drink very little alcohol, so little, in fact, that I tend to just say that ‘I don’t drink’.  But on the rare occasion I have a drink, I go for single malt scotch ‘neat’.  I’m a slow sipper, and I don’t recall having ever had more than one at a sitting because I am such a light weight…although, now that I think about it maybe I have had more than one, and just don’t recall it….but I digress.

One of the two specific things I remember about our after-dinner conversation was that Sean was impressed when I ordered my scotch neat.  Evidently, it sounded somehow… ’sophisticated’ or ‘manly’, as though I knew what I was doing (NOT!); as though I had said, “shaken, not stirred“.

The other thing I remember was that he seemed genuinely interested and touched when I brought up my friendship with Tippi Hedren, who he played opposite in Alfred Hitchcock’s “MARNIE”.  If you have never seen that film, they are both truly incredible in it.

So, there we were, having that drink at his table that night, just the four of us sitting and chatting about anything and everything.  It is an understatement to say that I was starstruck, and that might explain why I can’t recall more of the conversation.  But what I will never forget, what I was most impressed by, was the gentle kindness and grace that both he and Micheline showed to me, a complete stranger, upon a chance encounter.

Sir Sean Connery was a consummate actor, an approachable, accommodating human being, and a true gentleman.  All of my thoughts go out to Micheline, Jason, and his family and close friends.

Oh – and I read this from an article in The Telegraph: “I’m fed up with the idiots,” (Connery) said in 2005. (He) complained of the “ever-widening gap between people who know how to make movies and the people who green-light the movies”.  I can relate…