One of the great things about being a journalist is you occasionally get to encounter people whose work as an actor or director you have admired.
I have been that fortunate.
However in the case of Sean Connery, I happened to be on holiday when I caught sight of him.
It was June 30 2007, on the day when Glasgow Airport would later be targeted by terrorists, only for them to be "set aboot" by locals (to quote the city's main hero during the attack, John Smeaton).
An SNP minority government had just been elected in Holyrood.
My wife, two year old daughter and I were holidaying in Edinburgh and, on the last day of our week long break, we hadn't realised there was going to be a state opening of the Scottish Parliament by the Queen.
As we waited for a colourful parade featuring the Red Hot Chilli Pipers to roll through the Royal Mile, there was a flurry of excitement when Scotland's new First Minister Alex Salmond arrived.
As the SNP leader swept onto the street and worked the crowds with all the charm that a slick politician can muster, a coach pulled up and someone shouted: "It's Sean Connery. Look!"
Luckily, I managed to grab some footage of Connery on our camcorder and, even in his advanced years, he was every bit as handsome as you'd expect.
Connery was there because he was a proud Scotsman and a fervent nationalist.
But away from politics, he was a commanding screen presence for much of his career.
Even in his seventies, he cut a fine figure and was the type of actor women and men adored.
Born in Edinburgh in 1930, his father Joseph was a factory worker and lorry driver of Irish Catholic stock, while his mother, Euphemia was a Protestant.
A former milkman with the St Cuthbert's Co-operative Society, he served in the Royal Navy before he was discharged with a duodenal ulcer.
On his return to Edinburgh, he worked as a lorry driver, a coffin polisher and a model at the Edinburgh College of Art where he earned 15 shillings an hour.
In his late teens, he began bodybuilding where he would hone his impressive physique and would attract the attention of Sir Matt Busby for his football skills, securing a trial with Manchester United at the age of 23.
Connery's passion for football would never fade - he would later controversially switch allegiances from his boyhood team Glasgow Celtic to their rivals Glasgow Rangers because of his friendship with the latter's owner, Sir David Murray.
However at the age of 23, he discovered acting and figured if he pursued a footballing career, it would be all over at 30.
Initially, Connery's first taste of the footlights and greasepaint was working backstage at the King's Theatre.
However in 1953, he auditioned for a role in the chorus in a touring production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific' and landed the part of one of the Seabees Boys.
Connery was so impressive, he was soon given the role of Marine Corporal Hamilton Steeves, earning £14.10 shillings a week and when the production returned due to popular demand, he was cast as Lieutenant Buzz Adams.
It was during this tour that he would encounter another rising star at a house party - Michael Caine and they would eventually become close friends.
In Edinburgh, Connery acquired a hard man image when he was attacked by six members of the infamous Valdor street gang who were trying to mug him in a billiard hall on Lothian Street. Connery reportedly fended them off on a fifteen foot balcony by grabbing one gang member by the throat, another by the biceps and cracking their heads together.
Through his friendship with the American actor-director Robert Henderson, he developed a deep love of theatre and devoured the work of Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, William Shakespeare and Ivan Turgenev.
Taking elocution lessons, he headed to London working in the Maida Vale Theatre and landed his first minor film role in Herbert Wilcox's 1954 musical 'Lilacs In The Spring' starring Anna Neagle.
He learned his craft through a variety of theatre roles in plays like 'Witness for the Prosecution', 'The Bacchae' and 'Anna Christie' and also as a film extra.
Connery also started to appear on TV shows like 'Dixon of Dock Green' and 'Sailor of Fortune' and eventually got his break in a lead role in the BBC's 'Requiem for a Heavyweight'.
After appearing in a critically mauled MGM action movie 'Action of the Tiger' with Van Johnson, Martine Carol and Herbert Lom, he nabbed an eye catching role opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan in Lewis Allen's 1958 love triangle melodrama 'Another Time, Another Place'.
Connery was confronted at gunpoint during the making of the film by Turner's jealous real-life gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato who could not bear watching their fictional romance but the Scotsman stood up to him, chasing him off the set.
One year later, Disney cast him in Robert Stevenson's leprechaun comedy 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' starring veteran Irish actors Albert Sharpe and Jimmy O'Dea.
It was to prove a pivotal role for Connery, bringing him to the attention of Albert R Broccoli who had the rights for the 007 movies.
In 1962, he was cast as Ian Fleming's suave agent James Bond in 'Dr No', directed by Terence Young, and its mix of sex, violence and self-deprecating humour was an immediate box office smash on both sides of the Atlantic - with the 007 movies sparking many big and small screen imitations including NBC's TV series 'The Men From UNCLE' and CBS's 'Mission Impossible'.
Connery would enjoy five more outings between 1963 and 1971 as 007 in Terence Young's 'From Russia With Love' (1963), Guy Hamilton's 'Goldfinger' (1964), Young's 'Thunderball' (1965), Lewis Gilbert's 'You Only Live Twice' (1967) and Hamilton's 'Diamonds Are Forever' (1971) before making way for Roger Moore.
He would reprise the role one more time in 1983 in Irvin Kershner's inferior 'Never Say Never Again' alongside Kim Basinger.
For many Bond devotees he remains the quintessential 007 - even when pitched opposite Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
Critics of the series, however, saw him as the embodiment of Bond's causal chauvinism.
Connery's willingness to take on the physical demands of the role - even swimming with sharks in 'Diamonds Are Forever' - set a high standard for future action stars with Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and Liam Neeson later doing their own stunts.
But it also opened doors to more demanding roles and more demanding directors.
Alfred Hitchcock came a calling for his 1964 psychological thriller 'Marnie' in which he played the love interest to Tippi Hedren's troubled heroine and he got on well with the great director. The movie performed strongly at the box office.
In 1965, he would forge a creative partnership with the Philadelphia-born director Sidney Lumet, turning in one of his best performances as a Sergeant Major jailed in a North African British Army prison camp in 'The Hill' alongside Harry Andrews, Michael Redgrave, Roy Kinnear and Ian Bannen.
The film was critically well received and won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA for Oswald Morris's cinematography.
In 1970, he was cast as the lead in Martin Ritt's gritty union drama 'The Molly Maguires' as the leader of a secret organisation of Irish miners in 19th Century Pennsylvania fighting exploitation, only to be infiltrated by Richard Harris's undercover detective. However the film, which was made for $11 million, stumbled at the US box office taking only $2 million.
A year later, Connery teamed up again with Lumet for the gripping thriller, 'The Anderson Tapes' as a burglar who solicits Mafia money to carry out a robbery, unaware he is under surveillance.
Even in his seventies, he cut a fine figure and was the type of actor women and men adored.
Born in Edinburgh in 1930, his father Joseph was a factory worker and lorry driver of Irish Catholic stock, while his mother, Euphemia was a Protestant.
A former milkman with the St Cuthbert's Co-operative Society, he served in the Royal Navy before he was discharged with a duodenal ulcer.
On his return to Edinburgh, he worked as a lorry driver, a coffin polisher and a model at the Edinburgh College of Art where he earned 15 shillings an hour.
In his late teens, he began bodybuilding where he would hone his impressive physique and would attract the attention of Sir Matt Busby for his football skills, securing a trial with Manchester United at the age of 23.
Connery's passion for football would never fade - he would later controversially switch allegiances from his boyhood team Glasgow Celtic to their rivals Glasgow Rangers because of his friendship with the latter's owner, Sir David Murray.
However at the age of 23, he discovered acting and figured if he pursued a footballing career, it would be all over at 30.
Initially, Connery's first taste of the footlights and greasepaint was working backstage at the King's Theatre.
However in 1953, he auditioned for a role in the chorus in a touring production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific' and landed the part of one of the Seabees Boys.
It was during this tour that he would encounter another rising star at a house party - Michael Caine and they would eventually become close friends.
In Edinburgh, Connery acquired a hard man image when he was attacked by six members of the infamous Valdor street gang who were trying to mug him in a billiard hall on Lothian Street. Connery reportedly fended them off on a fifteen foot balcony by grabbing one gang member by the throat, another by the biceps and cracking their heads together.
Through his friendship with the American actor-director Robert Henderson, he developed a deep love of theatre and devoured the work of Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, William Shakespeare and Ivan Turgenev.
Taking elocution lessons, he headed to London working in the Maida Vale Theatre and landed his first minor film role in Herbert Wilcox's 1954 musical 'Lilacs In The Spring' starring Anna Neagle.
He learned his craft through a variety of theatre roles in plays like 'Witness for the Prosecution', 'The Bacchae' and 'Anna Christie' and also as a film extra.
After appearing in a critically mauled MGM action movie 'Action of the Tiger' with Van Johnson, Martine Carol and Herbert Lom, he nabbed an eye catching role opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan in Lewis Allen's 1958 love triangle melodrama 'Another Time, Another Place'.
Connery was confronted at gunpoint during the making of the film by Turner's jealous real-life gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato who could not bear watching their fictional romance but the Scotsman stood up to him, chasing him off the set.
One year later, Disney cast him in Robert Stevenson's leprechaun comedy 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' starring veteran Irish actors Albert Sharpe and Jimmy O'Dea.
It was to prove a pivotal role for Connery, bringing him to the attention of Albert R Broccoli who had the rights for the 007 movies.
In 1962, he was cast as Ian Fleming's suave agent James Bond in 'Dr No', directed by Terence Young, and its mix of sex, violence and self-deprecating humour was an immediate box office smash on both sides of the Atlantic - with the 007 movies sparking many big and small screen imitations including NBC's TV series 'The Men From UNCLE' and CBS's 'Mission Impossible'.
He would reprise the role one more time in 1983 in Irvin Kershner's inferior 'Never Say Never Again' alongside Kim Basinger.
For many Bond devotees he remains the quintessential 007 - even when pitched opposite Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
Critics of the series, however, saw him as the embodiment of Bond's causal chauvinism.
Connery's willingness to take on the physical demands of the role - even swimming with sharks in 'Diamonds Are Forever' - set a high standard for future action stars with Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and Liam Neeson later doing their own stunts.
But it also opened doors to more demanding roles and more demanding directors.
In 1962, Connery married the Australian actress Diane Cilento with whom he had a son, Jason who would go onto be the star of ITV's 'Robin of Sherwood'.
They separated in 1971 with Cilento later alleging he was mentally and physically abusive.
In 1965, he would forge a creative partnership with the Philadelphia-born director Sidney Lumet, turning in one of his best performances as a Sergeant Major jailed in a North African British Army prison camp in 'The Hill' alongside Harry Andrews, Michael Redgrave, Roy Kinnear and Ian Bannen.
The film was critically well received and won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA for Oswald Morris's cinematography.
In 1970, he was cast as the lead in Martin Ritt's gritty union drama 'The Molly Maguires' as the leader of a secret organisation of Irish miners in 19th Century Pennsylvania fighting exploitation, only to be infiltrated by Richard Harris's undercover detective. However the film, which was made for $11 million, stumbled at the US box office taking only $2 million.
A year later, Connery teamed up again with Lumet for the gripping thriller, 'The Anderson Tapes' as a burglar who solicits Mafia money to carry out a robbery, unaware he is under surveillance.
The movie was in many ways ahead of its time, coming two years before the infamous Watergate scandal and three years before Francis Coppola and Gene Hackman explored similar territory in 'The Conversation'.
His third collaboration with Lumet came in 1972 with 'The Offence', as a British detective who kills Ian Bannen's suspected child molester during an interrogation. In many ways, it was a precursor to a slew of troubled cop movies by the director including 'Serpico', 'Prince of the City' and 'Q&A'.
Connery is terrific as Detective Sergeant Johnson in a role which toys with our sympathy for his character and also his suspect.
In 1974, John Boorman directed him in a red mankini alongside Charlotte Rampling in the much maligned sci-fi 'Zardoz' which later managed to find a cult audience on home video.
That year, he was one of 13 suspects in Lumet's adaptation of 'Murder On The Orient Express' with Albert Finney as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, John Geilgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York and Northern Irish actor Colin Blakely among the cast. It was the 11th highest grossing film of that year.
The great director John Huston teamed Connery up at last with Michael Caine in a riproaring adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Indian adventure 'The Man Who Would Be King' which pitched the two actors as a British partnership to rival Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Richard Lester cast Connery and Audrey Hepburn a year later as an ageing Robin Hood and Maid Marian in the well received romantic comedy, 'Robin and Marian' with Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Ronnie Barker as Friar Tuck and Richard Harris as Richard the Lionheart.
Connery is terrific as Detective Sergeant Johnson in a role which toys with our sympathy for his character and also his suspect.
In 1974, John Boorman directed him in a red mankini alongside Charlotte Rampling in the much maligned sci-fi 'Zardoz' which later managed to find a cult audience on home video.
That year, he was one of 13 suspects in Lumet's adaptation of 'Murder On The Orient Express' with Albert Finney as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, John Geilgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York and Northern Irish actor Colin Blakely among the cast. It was the 11th highest grossing film of that year.
The great director John Huston teamed Connery up at last with Michael Caine in a riproaring adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Indian adventure 'The Man Who Would Be King' which pitched the two actors as a British partnership to rival Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
Richard Lester cast Connery and Audrey Hepburn a year later as an ageing Robin Hood and Maid Marian in the well received romantic comedy, 'Robin and Marian' with Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Ronnie Barker as Friar Tuck and Richard Harris as Richard the Lionheart.
In 1975, after a string of high profile relationships he would marry the Moroccan French painter Micheline Roqbrune who he would remain with until his death.
The marriage would survive allegations of an affair with the English singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul.
In 1962, Connery had appeared in a star studded recreation of the Normandy D-Day landings as a British Private in 'The Longest Day' starring Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Richard Burton and Kenneth More.
Fifteen years later, he was a British Major General in Sir Richard Attenborough's star studded 'A Bridge Too Far' about the Battle for Arnhem with Robert Redford, Laurence Olivier, Gene Hackman, Ryan O'Neal, Anthony Hopkins, Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullmann, James Caan and Michael Caine.
Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film performed strongly at the box office.
In 1979, Michael Crichton, who would later create 'Jurassic Park' and 'ER', directed Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down in 'The Great Train Robbery' which was filmed in Dublin and Cork and was a critical and minor commercial success.
However Ronald Neame's science fiction disaster movie 'Asteroid' with Connery, Henry Fonda and Karl Malden and Richard Lester's revolutionary drama 'Cuba' underperformed.
He would return to the science fiction genre with Peter Hyams' 'Outland' in 1981 - a 'High Noon' style drama which failed to sparkle at the box office in the way 'Star Wars' and 'Alien' had.
There was an impressive turn in the same year as King Agamemnon in Terry Gilliam's Pythonesque time travelling comedy 'Time Bandits' which fared well at the US box office.
However, Connery was taken aback at the critical and commercial pasting that Fred Zinnerman's romantic Alpine drama 'Five Days One Summer' received in 1982.
In a bizarre piece of casting, he played a Spanish immortal in 1986 opposite Frenchman Christophe Lambert's Scots warrior in Russell Mulcahy's 'Highlander' but it performed decently at the box office.
That same year, he would capture a BAFTA for Best Actor for his role as the 14th Century Franciscan Friar William of Baskerville investigating a mysterious death in a northern Italian Benedictine monastery with Christian Slater's troubled novice in Jean-Jacques Annaud's 'The Name of the Rose'.
A year later, he would capture the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as an Irish cop in Chicago who helps Kevin Costner's Treasury agent, Elliot Ness take on Robert de Niro's Al Capone in Brian de Palma's 'The Untouchables'.
Even though his attempt at an Irish accent in the film has often been ridiculed, Connery oozed charisma as Jimmy Malone, the one good cop in a corrupt town.
He clearly relished David Mamet's dialogue and there is no denying it was one of his most nuanced performances and was worthy of an Oscar.
In his last collaboration with Lumet, Connery outshone Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick in the disappointing 'Family Business' about a botched heist involving three generations in an Irish American family.
In 1990, he was nominated for a BAFTA again with a commanding performance as a Russian defector in John McTiernan's gripping submarine drama 'The Hunt for Red October' alongside Alec Baldwin, Sam Neill and Joss Ackland.
In the same year, Fred Schepisi directed Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer in a Cold War drama - an adaptation of John Le Carre's 'The Russia House' with Klaus Maria Brandaeur, Roy Scheider and James Fox.
Connery continued to prove his box office clout in the 1990s in Philip Kaufman's dark Japanese crime drama 'Rising Sun' (1993) alongside Wesley Snipes and Harvey Keitel, Arne Glimcher's Death row thriller 'Just Cause' (1996), Jerry Zucker's Arthurian love triangle drama 'First Knight' (1995) with Richard Gere and Julia Ormond, alongside Nicolas Cage in Michael Bay's action movie, 'The Rock' (1996) and opposite Catherine Zeta Jones in Jon Amiel's heist movie 'Entrapment' (1999).
In 2000, he also accepted a knighthood at a ceremony in Holyrood in his native city of Edinburgh.
Three years later, he finally bowed out of Hollywood with an adaptation of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's superhero comic 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' as Allan Quartermain alongside Stuart Townsend's Dorian Gray and Jason Flemyng's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
While Stephen Norrington's film was slated by critics, it had a decent showing at the box office and in many ways, it was typical of Connery's career.
Three years later, he finally bowed out of Hollywood with an adaptation of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's superhero comic 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' as Allan Quartermain alongside Stuart Townsend's Dorian Gray and Jason Flemyng's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
While Stephen Norrington's film was slated by critics, it had a decent showing at the box office and in many ways, it was typical of Connery's career.
In latter years, Connery retired to the Bahamas where he enjoyed tax exile status, confirming his retirement in 2007 when he was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.
Steven Spielberg almost tempted him back onto a movie set with a chance to reprise his role as Dr Henry Jones in 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'.
He would explain on his own website: "If anything could have pulled me out of retirement, it would have been an Indiana Jones film. But in the end, retirement is just too much fun."
After years of living in Marbella, Connery and his wife would fall foul of the Spanish authorities when he sold his villa, with them accusing them of tax evasion to the tune of £5.5 million.
They were eventually cleared, although Micheline and 16 others were charged with attempting to defraud the Spanish treasury.
During retirement, he would continue to play golf and maintain his close friendship with Michael Caine.
In 2014, he backed the SNP and others' ultimately unsuccessful bid to secure Scottish independence in a referendum but he could not campaign in the country because it would effect his tax exile status.
He mostly kept a low profile in retirement, seeing out his days in the Bahamas.
When people look back on Sean Connery's career, there will remember many successes and quite a few disappointments.
Audiences will recall his unmistakable Scottish brogue, his masculinity and his handsome Celtic features.
Many will celebrate him as the greatest ever James Bond.
Others may make the case for other 007s.
But what is beyond dispute is few stars have ever matched Connery's magnetism on and offscreen.
Cinema's quintessential Scotsman may not have always taken the high road in his career but he did plenty of good work to justify his place among cinema's greatest screen icons.
But what is beyond dispute is few stars have ever matched Connery's magnetism on and offscreen.
Cinema's quintessential Scotsman may not have always taken the high road in his career but he did plenty of good work to justify his place among cinema's greatest screen icons.
(Sean Connery passed away at the age of 90 on October 31, 2020)
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