All About Sean Connery’s Son Jason Connery

Most of the world knew Sean Connery as James Bond but there was one person who knew him simply as “dad.”

The iconic actor — whose career spanned more than six decades — had one child with his first wife Diane Cilento, a son born in 1963 named Jason Joseph Connery. Though Sean would eventually split from Jason’s mother, the actor grew to have a close relationship with his son.

“My father is wonderful at being a father. I’m not intimidated by him. However, I do want him to be proud of me,” Jason told the Los Angeles Times in 1990.

The father and son continued their strong relationship as the elder actor aged, with the last pictures of Sean to be shared on social media being a photo of him with Jason as he celebrated his 89th birthday in August 2019.  Jason was also by his father’s side when he passed away at the age of 90 in October 2020.

“We are all working at understanding this huge event as it only happened so recently, even though my dad has been unwell for some time,” Jason said to the BBC at the time of his father’s death. “A sad day for all who knew and loved my dad and a sad loss for all people around the world who enjoyed the wonderful gift he had as an actor.”

Here’s everything to know about Sean Connery’s son Jason Connery.

He was born in London

Sean began dating Australian actress Diane Cilento in 1957, after the two played lovers in a television version of Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie, according to The New York Times. They married in November 1962, and six weeks later, their son Jason Joseph was born on Jan. 11, 1963, in London.

Sean and Diane would later go through a divorce in 1973, and Jason would grow up primarily with his mother in both London and Scotland. In 2017 he told the Los Angeles Times that he attended Scottish boarding school, Gordonstoun School.

“When I was growing up nobody really explained things to me,” Jason said about his parent’s divorce in The Sunday Times in 2004. “I didn’t realize what was going on ... Nowadays there is more openness, because there is an understanding that it does have an effect on the child. I can understand what they were going through, though.”

He followed his father’s footsteps into acting

Though both of his parents were actors, Jason initially had no desire to enter the industry.

“I wanted to be a farmer,” he told the Los Angeles Times, recalling how he spent time as a child at his mother’s farm in southern England. But after getting a taste of acting while at Gordonstoun, Jason changed his mind and was accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theater School (whose famous alumni include Daniel Day-Lewis, Olivia Colman and Gene Wilder).

“My dad basically said, ‘Look, the thing about acting is, it’s a tough profession. If you really don’t want to do it, you’ll find out soon,’ ” Jason recalled of telling his father he wanted to be an actor.

He added, “I was very aware of who Dad was and everybody else was. I felt very much like I had to defend myself or I had to say, 'I’m not just his son. I can act. I am not just riding on his coattails.' ”

Jason’s big break came in 1986 when he appeared as Robin Hood in a British television series of the same name. He went on to appear in films including Requiem, Shanghai Noon and Macbeth, as well as TV series like Smallville, Liberty’s Kids and Shoebox Zoo.

He played Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, in a TV movie

The character of James Bond was arguably Sean's most famous role, with the actor portraying the 007 agent in seven films over three decades. In an ironic twist, Jason also appeared in a Bond movie ... of sorts. He played the role of Ian Fleming — the novelist who created Bond —  in a 1990 cable movie titled The Secret Life of Ian Fleming.

“Now I can say to the press, ‘Compare me!’ ” Jason told the Los Angeles Times about the part, which inevitably drew comparisons to his father. “I realize that I’m always going to be compared to my father. There are innuendoes all the time. Should I spend my whole life justifying myself?”

Despite the potential for criticism, Sean approved of his son taking the part. “I rang Dad and told him, ‘There’s this really good script about Ian Fleming. How do you feel about my playing him?’ He had no objection,” Jason shared.

He shares his father’s passion for golf

Sean was well known for his passion for golf, even moving to Marbella, Spain in the mid-1970s, per the Times, primarily for its 24 golf courses. The game became one of the ways Jason bonded with his famous father.

“He cut down a 7-iron for me when I was a boy,” Jason told Page Six about golfing with his father. “I graduated to be his caddie, which was great when he was playing well, not so great when he wasn’t.”

As an adult, Jason continued to play with his father, even as the elder Connery was pushing 90 years old. Golf became a way for the pair to have father-son time — and some friendly competition.

“He loves his golf, as everyone knows,” Jason told The Sunday Times in 2004. “When we talk it’s usually about that ... he managed to correct my golf grip the other week. He showed me I’d started holding the club all wrong and when he gave me this new grip my game really improved. We had a great round – and yes I beat him, though I gave him a couple of shots.”

He has a son with his first wife

Jason married Mia Sara (best known for playing Sloane in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) in 1996 after the two appeared in the 1995 made-for-TV movie Bullet to Beijing together.  They then welcomed a son named Dashiell Quinn Connery — nicknamed Dash — in 1997, but divorced in 2002.

“My divorce was a really difficult thing for me, a shock,” Jason said to The Sunday Times. “I suddenly saw all the parallels between my dad, my mum and me, because they were both actors — like my ex and I. And they had a son, me — like we have Dash.”

He added, “I thought, ‘F---, I’ve done exactly the same thing they did’. Even though I’d sat thinking for years that that was just what I wasn’t going to do.”

Despite the divorce, Jason has remained on good terms with his ex-wife and continued living in Los Angeles at the time to be close to Dash.

“I want to be a constant in my son’s life because my dad wasn’t a constant in mine. I like to be involved,” he said.

He’s an accomplished director

While the majority of his father’s career was spent in front of the camera, Jason made the transition to directing in 2009 with the indie thriller Pandemic. He often spoke with his father about “film stuff,” according to his interview with The Sunday Times, and had hoped to someday make a movie with him.

“I’ve started directing and maybe one day I’ll direct him in something — who knows,” Jason said to the British newspaper.

The younger Connery went on to direct films including The Devil’s Tomb, 51 and The Philly Kid — but his most successful directing effort came with the 2016 period drama Tommy’s Honour, which told the story of father-and-son Scottish golf pioneers in the 1860s. The film went on to win the 2016 Scottish BAFTA for best feature film.

“What I try to do is sort of have a completely set idea of how I want everything to be,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2017 about his directing style. “I usually have a plan and then sometimes the plan goes out the window, if something comes up that seems to be better.”

He married Fiona Ufton in 2021

Jason began dating Irish singer Fiona Ufton in 2016, and the two made their red carpet debut at the premiere of his film Tommy’s Honour at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival. On the fifth anniversary of their first date, in late February 2021, Jason proposed to Ufton, according to the Edinburgh News — which noted that the singer announced the news on Instagram with a photo of her diamond and ruby ring.

“The love of my life got down on one knee & asked me to marry him. I said yes, a thousand times yes!!” Ufton wrote in the caption. “And now our next great adventure together begins. WE’RE GETTING MARRIED... in just over THREE WEEKS time.”

On April 11, 2021, the couple — who live in Scotland — wed at Town Hall in Roxburghshire, a small county in southern Scotland, according to the Edinburgh News, who added that Ufton shared several images from the intimate ceremony on her X (formerly Twitter) account and called it “the day the stars aligned.”

He leads a Scottish television and film studio

In March 2020, Jason was tapped to lead First Stage Studios along with the Oscar-nominated producer Bob Last. The television and film studio is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the hopes of boosting the country’s screen sector and economy.

“There is no question Scotland needs a film studio — I could not be more excited to be involved in bringing it to fruition,” Jason told U.K. newspaper The Times about the project.

The studio brings a piece of Hollywood to his father’s birthplace. The elder Connery always spoke fondly of Scotland, despite living in New York, the Bahamas and Spain throughout his adult life. “Scotland is my home and emotionally I’ve never left,” Sean famously told GQ in 2008.