You Only Die Once
16th April 2013
Twenty years ago, Sean Connery made his first appearance on the Late Show in America to dispel rumours he had died
By MI6 Staff
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In 1993, Sean Connery made his first ever appearance on the long-running 'Late Show with David Letterman' on CBS in the USA. Asked by the host how things were going, Conney said: "I'm doing well, but I'm really here to quell these rumours about my death." In the pre-internet era, the former 007 star had to take to national television to prove he was still alive and kicking.
The racing driver James Hunt died in Marbella on 15th June 1993, close to where Connery had a house, and it was picked up erroneously in the press as 'James Bond' had died. Coincidentally, it was the same day that the former Governor of Texas, John Connally, died. Japanese news reporters got the names of John Connally and Sean Connery mixed up, and combined with the Hunt/Bond gaffes and the fact that Connery had recently undergone treatment for throat cancer, it quickly spread back to Europe as a completely false story. The rest, as they say, is history.
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