20 Things You Didn’t Know About Thunderball (1965)
6. “Sorry, Old Chap. Better Luck Next Time!”
When Sean Connery learned that Bond would swim with sharks in the film, he commented: “No I bloody well won’t!”.
The sequence set at Palmyra could not be completed with stunt doubles, so Connery asked Ken Adam to build a Perspex corridor to protect him from the predators. However, Adam ran out of Perspex whilst building the barrier and, with no time to purchase more, he did not tell the Bond actor.
Whilst Connery swam between Palmyra's two pools, sharks were swimming over the Perspex towards him. Terence Young later recounted that the Scottish actor's terror was genuine, which helped to convince audiences of the very real danger to Double-0 Seven.
Meanwhile, as special effects supervisor, John Stears was preparing a supposedly dead shark to chase Bond out of the pool on a fishing line, the creature came to in his arms and Stears had to race out of the pool to safety. Given the danger, actor Bill Cumming - who portrayed Largo’s ill-fated lackey, Quist - demanded an additional £250 to be hurled into the pool with the sharks.
However, Sean Connery learnt his lesson: for many of the open water scenes featuring sharks, he was doubled by actor, Frank Cousins.