Younger siblings love to imitate, but that got ridiculous when Sean Connery's younger brother starred in the James Bond parody Operation Kid Brother. Bond, Agent 007, is the world's most recognizable super-spy and one of the most iconic characters in the history of pop culture. The James Bond movie franchise is legendary, and still commands huge audiences today, nearly 60 years after its debut entry. That all began with Sean Connery, who originated the Bond role on film in 1962's Dr. No, and would star in multiple follow-ups.
Connery, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 90, still stands as the consensus choice for best Bond actor too, thanks to his 007 films still being widely circulated through Blu-Ray and streaming. While Bond was far from Connery's only great role over the course of his long career, it's definitely what he'll always be best known for, and that's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Connery's particular take on Bond has never been fully duplicated, and the actors following him could only really hope to carve out their own niche with the character.
While it's not really something that's done as much now, back in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, the Italian film scene loved nothing more than to make a locally produced knock-off of what was working in Hollywood. One such early mockbuster was 1967's Operation Kid Brother, which was basically Bond, but with a comedic bent, and the character names changed. To top things off, producers hired Neil Connery, Sean's younger brother, to play the lead.
Operation Kid Brother: An Italian James Bond Parody Starring Neil Connery
Operation Kid Brother is quite the meta parody, even before meta became a term commonly used when talking about films. Neil Connery, who was actually a plasterer by trade, played a character named Dr. Neil Connery, who had a subtly referred to brother that was an international spy, oddly conflating Sean Connery the actor with the James Bond character. Adding to the oddness of the affair is the presence of Bond franchise vets Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee in the cast, who played Moneypenny and M, respectively, in the Connery films.
They weren't technically playing the same characters, but were only dissimilar enough to avoid a lawsuit as, according to Mental Floss, producer Dario Sabotello did originally try to make a deal to use the real Bond license for Operation Kid Brother. Unsurprisingly, Sean Connery wasn't exactly pleased with his own brother starring in a parody of his signature character and publicly criticized Sabotello for hiring a non-actor to lead a film just because of his familial ties. To that point, Neil Connery is hopefully a much better plasterer than he is an actor. Sean Connery also reportedly took issue with his co-stars participating, but is said to have gotten over it. Amusingly, he was actually offered the chance to cameo by Sabotello, which he refused.
As one might imagine, Operation Kid Brother wasn't exactly a hit with critics, although Sabotello's hopes of it being a financial success were also dashed. Still, it's rare that a spoof movie actually features cast members from the movies it's spoofing, and that, combined with the strange premise of a plastic surgeon being forced to become a superspy, ensure that Operation Kid Brother is one of the most memorable James Bond parodies, if not itself a very good movie.