He always seemed like such a nice guy--not your usual Hollywood type. I still remember an emmy acceptance speech he made where he declared that he was incredulous that they paid him for doing something that he loved. He is to be honored for his longstanding marriage and for such a long career in which he made acting look so easy. I am a fan of good hair--he had that too. RIP James Garner. We will miss you.

I really liked him. He was in a Christmas movie with Julie Andrews that I loved. She was a doctor whose husband had died and he had a beloved wife in an Alzheimer's unit.

I'm not excusing abuse. Just because you understand some of the conditions that create it, doesn't mean you condone it or even tolerate it. But abusers learn abuse by being abused, by not being valued or respected in their youth, at home, in school and usually early on at work. It creates a viscous cycle that is hard to break. Particularly since much of the world operates on abusive foundations. Abusers egos are fragile due to the trauma of their own abuse, which they rarely can overcome. It take a lot to break the cycle, and abusers almost always end up alone but with a string of failed marriages and business ventures behind them. Same with narcissists. The two often go together. Very hard for that kind of person to change, but it's a spectrum. Acting is the perfect place for an abusive person to hide, which is probably why so many Hollywood marriages fail. Acting is hardly the profession to tackle abusive behavior, actors are objectified and used for the ego gratification of others, which is part of the personality of abuse, not valuing others innate humanity, but using them as objects. In movie making, the actors are the puppets used to make money and that is the bottom line, will it sell. Some artists in the acting profession try to beat the system, but it is a popular system . . . FWIW, I never liked the Bond movies. Inane childish fantasies, like "gag me" silly. But that's just one gal's opinion. The best Sean Connery movie I ever saw was "Robin and Marian" and that one is pretty dark . . .try watching The Molly Maguires if you can stomach it . . . It's possible to like a person who is deeply flawed . . . from a distance. One hopes for the best for them, that they can grow spiritually, as in Christian love. One hopes for their true redemption. That's not the same thing as tolerating or condoning abuse. Expect the worst, hope for the best. Just forgiving and not giving in to hate yourself. Hating someone is a waste of energy. Sounds like Sean Connery's first wife got over it and moved on. Living well is the best revenge. We need to not idolize the abusive behaviors. Sean Connery made his fortune on glorifying low grade (silly for the most part) violence. And people ate it up. Some of his more mature movies had a more nuanced approach to battling violence. I think he was probably a complex man, not a caricature. He acted for our enjoyment, the rest we should leave to God.

I liked him in Zardoz, which is one of the novels my mother had in her book collection when I was a child. I didn't know about the slapping either, but I oppose that no matter who does it. Most often in movies, women slap men, and this is just as wrong as men slapping women. The slapper should be arrested for assault in all cases. I never understood the attraction for him in the 007 movies, but I do remember seeing him on the cover of a lot of magazines. To me, he seemed too old for the women he was with in the movies. I didn't have as much of a problem with the age difference with Cary Grant, however. Later, I came to appreciate his performance in the 007 movies and does seem to me to be the definitive Bond character, partly because of his voice. No one else can say "Bond, James Bond" the way he did.