Roger Moore, star of seven James Bond films, dies at 89
Roger Moore, who played James Bond in more 007 films than any other actor, has died at 89, his personal assistant, Gareth Owen, confirmed to USA TODAY.
In a statement, his three adult children said, "It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our loving father, Sir Roger Moore, has passed away today in Switzerland after a short but brave battle with cancer."
The actor is best remembered for playing James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985, beginning with Live and Let Die and ending with A View to A Kill.
Moore’s relaxed style and sense of whimsy, which relied heavily on the arched eyebrow, seemed a commentary on the essential ridiculousness of the Bond films, in which the handsome British secret agent was as adept at mixing martinis and bedding beautiful women as he was at disposing of supervillains trying to take over the world.
“To me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous, so outrageous,” he once said, according to The Very Best of Roger Moore: The Man Behind the Bond. “I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy and yet, everybody knows he’s a spy. Every bartender in the world offers him martinis that are shaken, not stirred. What kind of serious spy is recognized everywhere he goes? It’s outrageous. So you have to treat the humor outrageously as well.”
While he never eclipsed Sean Connery in the public’s eye as the definitive James Bond, Moore did play the role of the secret agent in just as many films as Connery did, and he managed to do so while “finding a joke in every situation,” according to film critic Rex Reed.
Moore began his acting career at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he studied alongside future Bond co-star Lois Maxwell, who would go on to originate the role of Miss Moneypenny, secretary to Bond's boss M, the head of MI6. But Moore's studies were interrupted by mandatory military service.
HIS LEGACY: Hollywood remembers Roger Moore
After fulfilling his responsibilities to the army, the London-born actor headed to Hollywood, where he appeared in films with Elizabeth Taylor (1954’s The Last Time I Saw Paris) and Lana Turner (1956's Diane).
But film critics weren't exactly smitten with Moore early on. Time compared him to a "lump of English roast beef." And the actor joked that at MGM, where he had a seven-year contract early in his career and would return to play James Bond, RGM (Roger Moore) was NBG (No Bloody Good).
American TV was kinder to the young actor, and he began to build his resume with shows like Ivanhoe, Maverick and The Alaskans.
But it was British roles that would make him a star. First came the ITV adaptation of The Saint, in which he played Simon Templar, the mysterious, Robin Hood-like hero of Leslie Charteris' books.
In 1972, original James Bond star Sean Connery signaled he was done with the role after 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. The role was offered to Moore on the condition that he cut his hair and lose weight before cameras rolled on Live and Let Die.
He would go on to make six more Bond movies over the next 12 years: The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only and A View to A Kill. And while the Bond of the Ian Fleming novels that the films were based on was generally described as being in his 30s, Moore would stay with the role until he was 57.
He continued to work regularly in films after handing over Bond to Timothy Dalton, but never with the same success. His post-Bond films included such forgettable efforts as The Quest with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Spice World with the Spice Girls.
In 1991, he began one of the most satisfying roles of his career: as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.
“I felt small, insignificant and rather ashamed that I had traveled so much making films and ignored what was going on around me,” he said in describing how the work had affected him.
In 1996, when his UNICEF job took him to the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, he revealed that he too had been a victim.
“I was molested when I was a child — not seriously — but I didn’t tell my mother until I was 16, because I felt that it was something to be ashamed of,” he told the Associated Press. He did not offer details but he stressed that young victims should not feel guilty about what had been done to them.
“They’re being exploited. We have to tell them that,” Moore said.
Moore received the Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award for his work with UNICEF and was named a commander in France’s National Order of Arts and Letters in 2008, an award he said was worth “more than an Oscar.”
That same year, he published an autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, which included details about his work on the Bond films, his friendship with Audrey Hepburn, his encounters with Taylor, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and other stars, and his health struggles — including a bout with prostate cancer, which he beat.
.Moore was divorced three times, from skater Doorn Van Steyn in 1953, English singer Dorothy Squires in 1969 and Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, the mother of his children, Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian, in 2000.
He married a fourth time, in 2002, to Swedish socialite Kristina Tholstrup.
The family is planning a private funeral in Monaco for Moore in accordance with his wishes.
Contributing: The Associated Press