Sir Sean Connery celebrated his 85th birthday yesterday and no one was happier to see the former Bond star celebrate the day than traditional musician Phil Cunningham.
The folk star revealed yesterday that he had once accidentally killed the actor off – even playing a song in tribute to him at a packed concert.
Mr Cunningham made the remarkable confession yesterday, and admitted the Bond star had even called him up to tell him off.
He said: “I was watching the news in a hotel in Spain just before going on stage when something came on about Sean Connery, along with a set of dates. I decided that I could speak Spanish well enough to interpret the item as saying that Sean was dead.
“I told the boys in the band he was dead, then went on stage and announced to a crowd of more than 4,000 people that he’d died, then played a tune for him.
“Everybody lit their lighters and it was a very sad moment.”
It wasn’t true of course but it wasn’t until the musician – who will perform with Aly Bain at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness this weekend – was back in Scotland that his faux pas caught up with him.
“Things got worse,” he said.
“I was in my bed one afternoon in a hotel in Fort William when the phone rang, and it was Sean Connery calling to give me a telling off.
“He’d got to hear of me killing him off through a member of the band, who had then told the story during a party at Billy Connolly’s house which Sean was attending.”
Thinking it was one of his pals pulling his leg, Mr Cunningham then made matters worse by telling Sir Sean: “Your accent’s pretty good but it’s not good enough.
“I thought it was a wind up.
“But Sean was phoning while Billy’s other guests, such as Robin Williams and Steve Martin were standing around watching him call to get me into trouble – there’s a photograph somewhere of them laughing while he phones me.”
Once he realised it was the man himself, Mr Cunningham quickly apologised.
“I said to him, if it’s any consolation, I’m really happy that you’re not dead.
“Sean said, ‘Co-incidentally, so am I.”