How Sean Connery became a victim of the mafia, 4 years before James Bond

In 1961, Sean Connery won the contest that was organized London Express and was determined to find the actor who would most likely portray James Bond on screen, the hero imagined by Ian Fleming. The start of quite a journey into orbit for the actor, who will play Agent 007 six times.

Beginning on the stage in 1951, he made his film debut in 1955 in Frank Launder’s Geordie and Terent Young’s Edge of the Volcano. Three years later, she starred in the Lewis Allen-signed drama I Cry My Love, in which she is opposite a legend of Hollywood’s Golden Age: the fiery Lana Turner.

Here’s the trailer…

The tabloid queen

The queen of the Hollywood tabloids, she regularly hit the headlines. Especially since her latest male conquest at the time, an ex-sailor turned notorious gangster, Johnny Stompanatowhom he met in 1957.

This former bodyguard of the mafia Mickey Cohen, was known for his violent and brutal character. Jealous and suspicious of the relationships Lana Turner might have, he broke up with her regularly, and not just verbally. Stompanato also has a sad reputation as a physical abuser, regularly and physically attacking those around him…

Stompanato’s morbid jealousy

It was in this particularly toxic environment and under very high tension during filming I’m crying my loveStompanato was seized with an unhealthy jealousy of Sean Connery, who made a movie couple with his partner. Until one day Stompanato actually went to England, joined the shooting of the film and provoked Sean Connery.

On the day Stompanato arrived on set, Conner, in his misery, so to speak, was filming an intimate scene with Lana Turner. Then the gangster took out a revolver. But the actor quickly disarmed himself by twisting the mobster’s wrist in a reflexive gesture. Controlled, but above all humiliated, Stompanato returned to the United States. And he did not forget this insult made by Conner.

Murder and threats against Sean Connery

On April 4, 1958, Lana Turner got into a violent argument with Johnny Stompanato at her home. Cheryl Crane, 14, daughter of the actor, who was present during the events, wanted to protect her mother and stabbed Stompanato with a knife.

In reality it would be Lana Turner who stabbed her lover when she found him sleeping in bed with their daughter after sex. A policeman would arrange the staging then Fred Otash and celebrity attorney Jerry Giesler, to defend Lana Turner. The trial that followed was loud and covered by the entire press of the country.

In the weeks after Stompanato’s death, private letters between Lana Turner and her ex-boyfriend were leaked to the press, some of which contained passages that mentioned Conner spending private time with Turner and Sheryl Crane.

A “detail” that was not to the taste of the deceased’s mafia friends… Fascinating River interview published in 1983 by the Rolling StonesSean Connery said that at that time he received death threats.

While staying at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, he received a call from Mickey Cohen, who asked him to get out of town and quickly… Considering the threat, Conner secretly moved to the Bel Air Palms Motel, located in St. in the San Fernando Valley and expected to keep a very low profile until things settled down.

“I didn’t know what I was dealing with and I couldn’t see it being discussed” The actor commented in an interview. looks good. It was not good to offend Mickey Cohen, who was in charge of organized crime in Los Angeles and in 1961 was sent to the famous Alcatraz prison for tax evasion. The same reason that sent a certain Al Capone behind the bars of this penitentiary in 1934.