Sean Connery may be a bit shaken, if not downright stirred, by his latest accolade.
The Oscar-winning acting vet who became a superstar as martini-swilling superspy James Bond has been tapped to receive the American Film Institute's highest honor, the Life Achievement Award, next spring, AFI Board of Trustees chair Howard Stringer has announced. Connery will become the 34 recipient of the prestigious award.
"Sir Sean Connery is an international film icon," Stringer said in a press release Thursday. "Though best remembered for creating one of the great film heroes of all time, his talents transcend typecasting, and his body of work not only stands the test of time, but illuminates a career more extraordinary than James Bond himself."
It's that sort of out-and-out flattery that Connery, 75, can look forward to at his star-studded tribute.
"In Sir Sean, AFI has found a perfect honoree for its Life Achievement Award," said Bonnie Hammer, President, USA Network, which airs the gala event. "A celebration of his outstanding work guarantees a tribute as entertaining as it is deserved."
The Scottish thespian was chosen based on his fulfilling of the AFI criteria as one "whose talent has in a fundamental way advanced the film art" and "whose work has stood the test of time."
Check and check.
Connery, who first graced the big screen in 1954's Lilacs in the Spring, is best known as the seminal 007 in a half-dozen films, including the franchise-launching Dr. No, Goldfinger and Never Say Never Again.
He went on to star in a slew of hit films, among them: Murder on the Orient Express, The Man Who Would Be King, The Hunt for Red October and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with fellow AFI honorees Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg.
Connery is also no stranger to the awards circuit: He nabbed both an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in 1987 for The Untouchables, received a Best Actor BAFTA that same year for The Name of the Rose, and earned the Cecile B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press in 1995.
With the AFI trophy in his case, Connery will join some select company.
Since 1973, the institute has honored 33 cinematic icons, including James Stewart, Tom Hanks, Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis and Meryl Streep.
Last year, Star Wars mastermind George Lucas accepted the honor at a ceremony that included a crooning William Shatner backed up by dancing stormtroopers.
Connery will be presented with his award June 8, 2006 in Los Angeles.
USA will broadcast the event later that month.