Edinburgh honours Sir Sean

Sir Sean: 70 this year. PHOTO: ROBBIE JACK

The EIFF pays tribute this year to one of the Scottish capital's most famous sons, Sir Sean Connery, with a special outdoor screening of Dr No and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The tribute, on 25th August 2000, is on the same day that Sir Sean marks his 70th birthday.

It also follows the Queen's recent presentation of the Knighthood to Connery at the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh - an award which was reportedly denied him in previous years because of his high profile support for the Scottish Nationalist Party. Famously, Connery has a tattoo on his arm saying "Scotland Forever".

There was no bitterness on Connery's part when receiving his knighthood. "It's one of the greatest days of my life," Sir Sean, dressed in full highland dress, told gathered fans outside the Palace.

Connery has come a long way from humble beginnings. The actor dropped out of school at the age of 13 and spent a good deal of his time travelling and performing plays. Before breaking into the big time with his role as 007 (beating off much bigger names at the time), he has worked in a variety of guises including as a milkman in the Fountainbridge area of Edinburgh and nude model for art classes.

Fittingly, Dr No (1962) was the first of the Bond films and as such has a more raw and meaty storyline than the flashier films that would follow. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the third in the series, finds Connery playing one of the many authority figures of his later career as the unpredictable and irascible father to Harrison Ford's hero.

Both films will be screened as an outdoor double bill in East Princes Street Gardens at dusk against the backdrop of Edinburgh castle, one of the more dramatic of Edinburgh's frequently used film locations.

As for the future - Connery is not one to rest idle. He is co-producing and starring in, Finding Forrester, a Gus Van Sant project about a reclusive writer, played by Connery, mentoring a young black basketball star develop his writing talent. The film will co-star The Piano's Anna Paquin and is scheduled for release at the end of the year or early 2001.

Tickets for "A Knight Under the Stars" go on sale on 21st July.