Connery was born Thomas Sean Connery on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Scotland. The son of Joe, a truck driver, and Euphemia, a laundress, Connery had a modest upbringing in a neighborhood known as the "Street of a Thousand Scents" because of the stench of the local rubber mill and several breweries. His home was a two-room flat where the boy slept in a bureau drawer because his parents could not afford a crib. "We were very poor," comments Connery, "but I don't know how poor, because everybody was." Joe brought home only a few shillings a week, which he mostly spent on whiskey or gambling.
Known as "Tommy" as a child, Connery grew up playing tag or soccer on the streets with the youth of Fountainbridge. The local gang nicknamed him "Big Tom" because of his size and ability to beat most of his teammates. He attended Tollcross Primary School and amazed his teachers with his lightning-fast math skills. From the day he could read, he devoured every comic book he could get his hands on, dreaming up his own fantasy tales of Martians and madness. He still had a passion for cinema: "I used to play hooky and go to the local cinema house Blue Hall to watch movies," he recalls.
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