Before James Bond, Sean Connery was a little-known actor at the start of his career. He had had some starring roles but suffered from continual miscasting. By the time he left the Bond series, after Diamonds Are Forever, he was both a household name and an actor of international repute. Born in Edinburgh in 1929, the son of a truck driver, Connery worked at a variety of odd jobs - from bricklayer to milkman - before he landed a part in the chorus of the British stage production of South Pacific which began his career in show business.
With his leisurely smile, dead-pan wit, and impassive manner, Connery epitomized the early Bond to such an extent that it seemed impossible to replace him. Worried about typecasting, however, he left the Bond series in 1971 and continues a highly successful career on the screen.
Sean Connery, when he left the James Bond films, took with him the rights to the story, Thunderball. He of course could not use the title of the film, or book, but when he chose to make his own Bond film used the story of Thunderball and created, "Never Say Never Again".