The former First Minister of Scotland is among the officials debunking President Donald Trump‘s claim that Sean Connery supported him during his fight to get a golf course built on a nature preserve. Connery died at age 90, his family revealed over the weekend.
“Scotland and much of the world is mourning the loss of a great spirit. Sean Connery’s contribution and life’s work was immense, real and lasting and everyone with an ounce of class is reflecting upon just that today,” Alex Salmond, who served as Scotland’s First Minister from 2007 to 2014, said in a statement. “Tributes are great from all sources but this is not a time for tweeting silly claims or indeed responding to them.”
“The legendary actor, 007 Sean Connery, has past on to even greener fairways. He was quite a guy, and a tough character. I was having a very hard time getting approvals for a big development in Scotland when Sean stepped in and shouted, ‘Let him build the damn thing,'” Trump claimed on Twitter. “That was all I needed, everything went swimmingly from there. He was so highly regarded & respected in Scotland and beyond that years of future turmoil was avoided. Sean was a great actor and an even greater man. Sincere condolences to his family!”
CONTROVERSY
Meanwhile, some of Connery’s remarks about women are being recirculated in addition to all of the toasts to his memory for his iconic role as James Bond in five films, and his part in classics like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Connery first made remarks about slapping women when he spoke to Playboy in November 1965. “I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman, although I don’t recommend doing it in the same way that you’d hit a man,” he told the publication.
Describing an “openhanded slap” as “justified,” Connery also said it could be used “if all other alternatives fail and there has been plenty of warning,” adding, “If a woman is a b***h, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually, then I’d do it.”
In 1987, he doubled down in a conversation with Barbara Walters, saying: “I haven't changed my opinion… If you have tried everything else – and women are pretty good at this – they can’t leave it alone. They want to have the last word and you give them the last word, but they’re not happy with the last word. They want to say it again, and get into a really provocative situation, then I think it’s absolutely right.”
But in 2006, he claimed his comments were taken out of context. “My view is I don't believe that any level of abuse against women is ever justified under any circumstances. Full stop,” he told the Times of London.
His first wife Diane Cilento has said that he abused her, a claim he denied.