One of my all-time favorite actors is Sir Sean Connery. He appeared in four films that I never get tired of watching — Highlander, The Hunt for Red October, The Untouchables, and, of course, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — and as far as I’m concerned he is not only the original but The One True James Bond. He’s made a lot of crap movies over the years, but I’ve always said that his mere presence in a film is enough to make it watchable. (At least, I used to say that, before I saw The Avengers. That fetid lump of parrot droppings is one the extremely tiny handful of movies so bad that even I have been tempted to walk out of them. Unfortunately, Sean also appeared in one of the other crapfests on that list, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But surely his turn as Indiana Jones’ dad makes up for those two, right? Right?)

I’m not shy about admitting that I’ve tended to view Connery as something of an idol. I admire his knack of projecting self-confidence without veering into arrogance and I respect his curmudgeonly tendency to tell fools where the bear defecates in the woods. I’m still amused by the fact that he was voted People magazine’s sexiest man of the year when he was in his 60s, and I honestly hope I look half as good when I reach that age. (Hell, I’d like to look that good now.) The man is just plain cool. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that I like a lot of his movies.

Well, today I ran across some news that strikes me as impossibly sad — no, Sir Sean hasn’t died, but he has walked off the set of his latest film, Josiah’s Canon, and the gossip-mongers are saying he intends to retire from acting. The official reason for abandoning Josiah is so the 74-year-old actor can concentrate on writing his memoirs. However, the (more likely) rumor is that Sean has simply had enough of fighting with producers and directors, and he wants out of the brain-dead, profit-driven corporate nightmare that Hollywood has become in recent years. I can’t say that I blame him — the making of his last film, the aforementioned League, was reportedly one long battle between him and a young whippersnapper of a director who was far less interested in making a good film than he was in making a spectacle. The end result was neither good nor spectacular, and the thing that I find so sad about the rumor of Sean’s retirement is that, if true, it means his filmography will end on that ignominious note. I know he’s getting old, and I’m looking forward to reading his book, but I’ve been hoping for several years that he had one more iconic performance in him. I guess it’s not to be, though…