So there was just cause to go out drinking after a day's shoot, though Connery, 72, rarely joined the carousing of the younger cast and crewmates.
One night, actor Shane West (of ABC's late "Once and Again") and a few co-stars and crewmates stopped into the Blue Light bar. West's cell phone rang and flashed the number of Connery's assistant, who was expected to join everyone.
"It sounded like he was making fun of Sean's voice, and I'd already had a drink, so I imitated him right back," West recalled last week in Manhattan.
"We bantered back and forth until I started hearing all these people laughing in the background on his side of the phone."
That's when it hit West that the Scottish accent he'd been hearing really did belong to Connery, who'd borrowed his helper's cell phone.
"That night Sean showed up at the bar," West says. "He came up to me and said, 'How you doin', boy?' and he patted me on the shoulder and walked away."