Sun Tabloid Double -Oh -Seven
by Roni Sullivan
When you're the
splitting image of dashing superstar Sean Connery, the world is your oyster.
Just ask John allen, of Delray Beach Florida, who's making a fine living
posing as the ruggedly handsome 007 at private parties and corporite
conventions on movie sets and in commercials. It's been a roller-coaster
ride for the former owner of a wicker furniture store, whose career in
showbiz began late in life. "I didn't look like Sean Connery when I was
younger" Allen Says "It wasn't until I was 49 and grew a beard that is when
it happened". Then the work started coming and the phone started to ringing.
Now I am booked booked two to three times a month". Allen's break in the
business occurred in 1996 when a stranger approached him at a Florida
restaurant. "I can make you a lot of money as James Bond" said the man. I
want you to beat up some guy and throw him in Donald Trumps swimming pool.
"I can do that" Allen told him.
And that first intriguing gig led to a
bustling career, traveling around the world and earning $300 to $500 an hour
for meet and greets to a whopping $1000 to $5000 a day working as a stand-in
for doubling for the 74-year-old Scottish actor. But the best perk of the
job came when he actually met Connery face to face on a Hollywood movie set.
"Everyone was very excited to have him on the set" says Allen,57 "He stepped
onto the set and instead of going over to the director he came up to me and
said" Hello John, you look wonderful today" "I said "of course I do I look
like you " Allen has become so successful in his field that he recently
recieved an award from The International Guild of Celebrity Impersonators.
"John is really the epitone of what we want to project as the ideal in
membership" says founder of the Guild Phil Jesse. "He talks and walks like the
actor is congenial and professional, confident, but not cocky"
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