Sean Connery Had a Real-Life James Bond Moment Early in His Career

The Big Picture

• Sean Connery’s hand-to-hand combat skills were put to the test when he scuffled with a real-life gangster on the set of a film.
• Connery quickly disarmed and overpowered the gangster, who was enraged and jealous of Connery’s on-screen relationship with Lana Turner.
• After the altercation, Connery received threats from the criminal underworld, prompting him to lay low and relocate to avoid any potential danger.

In hindsight, it may be impossible to imagine any actor other than Sean Connery as the big screen’s first incarnation of Ian Fleming‘s MI6 superspy James Bond. After winning the coveted role and starring as the character in seven films over two decades, his star-making turn is one of cinema’s most beloved and enduring. From fist fights to shootouts to deadly tangos in the air and underwater, Connery’s Bond engages in all manner of high-risk thrills and spectacle, and the Scottish actor’s history as a bodybuilder and black belt lent a level of authenticity to the secret agent’s physical prowess. But years before he stepped in 007’s shoes, Sean Connery’s hand-to-hand abilities were put to the test when he scuffled with a formidable real-life foe on the set of the 1958 film, Another Time, Another Place.

Sean Connery Attracted Unwanted Attention From Gangster Johnny Stompanato

Years before uttering one of cinema’s most iconic lines as James Bond, Sean Connery starred alongside Lana Turner in Another Time, Another Place. As one of the era’s premier Hollywood stars, Turner’s personal life was a regular source of tabloid fodder, and while filming with Connery, she was in a highly-publicized relationship with former Marine and gangster associate Johnny Stompanato beginning in 1957. As the former bodyguard of gangster Mickey Cohen, Stompanato had an infamous reputation for hostility and cruelty, and his treatment of Lana Turner during their on-again, off-again romance has been frequently characterized as physically and emotionally abusive.

During the production of Another Time, Another Place, the on-screen pairing of Turner and Connery became a source of jealousy for Stompanato. Enraged and looking for a fight, he traveled to the film’s set in England, where he found the two actors shooting an intimate scene on a couch. Per Cornwall Live, Stompanato brandished a handgun and confronted Connery, who wasted no time disarming the gangster with one quick move. Overpowered and humiliated, Stompanato fled the scene and returned to the United States, but he and his criminal associates wouldn’t soon forgive or forget Connery for his actions.

Johnny Stompanato Was Killed Shortly After His Altercation With Sean Connery

On April 4, 1958, barely more than a week after Lana Turner attended the Academy Awards as a Best Actress nominee for her performance in Peyton Place, she and Johnny Stompanato got into a fight at Turner’s home. Her 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, was present at the house, and fearing for her mother’s safety, intervened on Turner’s behalf as the fight intensified. According to CBS News, Crane grabbed a butcher knife and confronted Stompanato. She remembers, “The door flew open. Mother stood there, her hand on the knob. He was coming at her from behind, his arm raised to strike. I took a step forward and lifted the weapon. He ran on the blade. It went in. In!”

Within minutes, Johnny Stompanato was dead, and local police, medical professionals, and media personnel quickly descended on the scene. Cheryl Crane was taken to the Beverly Hills Police Station and booked as a murder suspect. A week later, among a frenzy of journalists and curious onlookers, Lana Turner recalled the events of April 4 via testimony given in the Hall of Records building in Los Angeles. After hearing her testimony and that of several others including Mickey Cohen, a jury deliberated for 25 minutes and delivered a verdict of justifiable homicide, though Cheryl Crane would remain incarcerated pending a separate court hearing in the upcoming weeks.

The killing of Johnny Stompanato became an immediate sensation in national headlines, but Lana Turner’s career would be largely unaffected by its scandalous nature. As for her daughter, the incident led to a tumultuous period involving suicide attempts, running away from home, and treatment in a psychiatric hospital, though she would persevere in the years to come. According to Vanity Fair, she ultimately spent years working alongside her father and assumed the position of vice president at one of his thriving companies. And for Sean Connery, though he emerged from his confrontation with Johnny Stompanato unscathed, the aftermath of the gangster’s death ushered in a period of anxiety for the 27-year-old actor.

Sean Connery Was Threatened After Johnny Stompanato’s Death

Sean Connery initially didn’t let his altercation with Johnny Stompanato get the better of him. In the weeks following Stompanato’s demise, however, private letters between Lana Turner and her former boyfriend leaked to the press, some of which contained passages mentioning Connery spending personal time with Turner and Cheryl Crane. Though Stompanato was no longer in the picture, his friends in the criminal underworld were, and they weren’t thrilled with some of the details the letters revealed.

Per Rolling Stone, Sean Connery, while a guest at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, received a phone call from Mickey Cohen. “Get your ass outta town,” he reportedly told the actor. Taking the threat seriously, Connery covertly relocated to the Bel Air Plams Motel in the San Fernando Valley and laid low. “I didn’t know what I was dealing with, and I didn’t see any point in discussing it,” he’d later admit. While nothing would come of the threat, the message was clear and Connery, still a relatively unknown actor, was wise to heed Cohen’s warning and let things cool down. But four years later, when the Scottish actor ascended to the top of the Hollywood ranks with his star-making turn as James Bond, even gangsters like Mickey Cohen would likely think twice about threatening the world’s deadliest superspy.

Another Time, Another Place is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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