Scottish actor Sean Connery, who played the role of James Bond in over seven spy thrillers, has died at the age of 90, according to a BBC report.
According to BBC, the actor passed away overnight in his sleep while in the Bahamas. He had been unwell for quite some time.
Connery was the first actor to portray the role of British secret service agent Bond, a role that rocketed him to fame.
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Connery's acting career spanned decades (he portrayed Bond between 1962 and 1983) and fetched him numerous awards, including an Oscar, two Bafta awards and three Golden Globes--- among the most coveted in the industry.
Connery was widely believed to have bee the best 007--- the code number by which Bond is known in the fictional series, based on Ian Fleming's novels. He was knighted by the Queen in 2000, according to the BBC report.
He would introduce himself in the movies with the signature line, "Bond - James Bond." But Connery was unhappy being defined by the role and once said he "hated that damned James Bond".
Raised in near poverty in the slums of Edinburgh, Connery worked as a coffin polisher, milkman and lifeguard before his bodybuilding hobby helped launch an acting career that made him one of the world's biggest stars.
Some of his noteworthy non-Bond films included director Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" (1964), "The Wind and the Lion" (1975) with Candice Bergen, director John Huston's "The Man Who Would be King" (1975) with Michael Caine, director Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989) and the Cold War tale "The Hunt for Red October" (1990).
