Yvonne Shima and Pat Gill on working with Sir Sean Connery

By: Steve Oxenrider

Published:
2020-11-08

As devastating as news of Sean Connery’s passing was to James Bond fans, it had an especially emotional impact on the Scottish actor’s film co-stars. I’ve had the privilege of knowing two of them over the last 10 years and chatted with them recently after the news of Connery’s passing.

I arranged to meet Yvonne Shima at the Designing 007 – 50 Years of Bond Style exhibition in Toronto in December 2012. In Dr. No (1962), the Canadian-Japanese actress played the part of Sister Lily, the overly cordial white-gowned hostess who greets Bond and Honey in the evil villain’s underground lair. Yvonne recalls opening the large copper door leading from the decontamination lab and the confusion of everyone running through the corridors before the climactic explosion. Yvonne was “very impressed” by the young Sean Connery in 1962.

Yvonne Shima: “I did hear of the passing of Sean Connery. I didn't have much contact with him nor Ursula, except on the set when we were shooting the scenes. He was very quiet and a gentleman. I think he was still the original and the best of the all the Bond men. None could match his character!”

Las Vegas showgirl Pat Gill was one of Shady Tree’s Acorns in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

Pat Gill, originally from South Africa, has been in Las Vegas since 1967 and is a living part of its glittering history. She can astound you for hours with celebrity legends she has known — Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis Jr., Liza Minnelli and, of course, Sean Connery. Even though her Bond appearance with Connery is a brief encounter outside her dressing room, Pat followed the film crew and cast around for over a month in 1971 and got to know Sean very well.

“I remember I fell in love with Sean Connery when I saw Dr. No. Sean was such a sweetheart because he let me use his patio to sunbathe when they filmed Diamonds Are Forever in Palm Springs. He was one of the classiest people I’ve ever met, so easy to get along with and had an amazing sense of humor. He was a class act all the way, the complete package.”

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Yvonne Shima and Pat Gill on working with Sir Sean Connery

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