LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) -A handgun used by the late Sean Connery in the first James Bond film sold for US$256,000 (S$342,000) at auction in Beverly Hills on Thursday (Dec 3), topping earlier estimates for the piece of Hollywood history, Julien's Auctions said.

The deactivated semi-automatic Walther PP pistol, which along with its smaller model the PPK became one of the film franchise's best-known images, was used by Connery in the movie Dr No in 1962.

Connery, the first James Bond in the franchise, died on Oct 31 at the age of 90.

Julien's said the winning bidder, who asked to remain anonymous, was an American who had seen every James Bond movie with his or her children. The auction house had previously estimated that the gun would fetch between US$150,000 and US$200,000.

A helmet created for Tom Cruise in Top Gun also sold at the auction for US$108,000, while a sword used by Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction fetched US$35,200.