When the action-adventure icon from one generation joined forces with the action-adventure icon from the next as father and son in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989), Sean Connery and Harrison Ford began a friendship that would survive a great deal of prickly needling.
“I had argued to bring Indy’s father into the series,” Ford remembers, “and then someone mentioned Sean for the part. And I said, ‘He’s not old enough, is he?’ And I was right. There was only 12 years between our ages.
“Then again, I am so much younger-looking than I really am, and he’s so much older-looking than he is. But if you ask him, he’ll say he acted it.”
Ford said that Connery’s contributions at the writing stage enhanced the film.
“It was amazing for me in how far he got into the script and went after exploiting opportunities for character,” Ford says. “His suggestions to George [Lucas] at the writing stage really gave the character and the picture a lot more complexity and value than it had in the original screenplay.
Ford calls Connery “remarkable and unique” and calls the Steven Spielberg-directed megahit “fun, full of the simple pleasures of good everyday work.”
The two stars also spent some off-hours together. Ford began playing tennis at the time.
“It was a doubles match, and he and I played together,” Ford says. “But if you ask him, he’ll say I played against him. I hit him in the back with two serves, something that he’s never been able to let me forget.”
