Roger Moore (October 14, 1927-May 23, 2017) starred in seven James Bond films, and is one of the best-known actors to have portrayed Ian Fleming’s fictional British secret service agent. According to an obituary in The Guardian, Moore “considered himself to be only the fourth best actor” to have played 007. Daniel Craig was at the top of Moore’s list, followed by Sean Connery and George Lazenby.
Moore’s first Bond film was Live and Let Die (1973), and his last was A View to a Kill (1985). The list includes Octopussy (1983), the only Bond movie to be shot extensively in India.
Moore’s first screen appearance was in 1945, in a non-speaking part in Caesar and Cleopatra. In The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), he played the dapper tennis player Paul.
Moore was known as “The Big Knit” after modelling for several knitwear advertisements during the 1950s. He honed his craft in television shows, including the period drama Ivanhoe, in which he played the titular hero, The Alaskans and Maverick. Stardom arrived with the British television series The Saint, in which he played Simon Templar, a Robin Hood inspired criminal. The series ran for seven years between 1962 and 1969.
In the TV series The Persuaders!, Moore and Tony Curtis were paired as an aristocrat and a ruffian. Moore also directed two episodes in the series.
James Bond eclipsed Roger Moore in the 1970s, but he did appear in other productions, such as Gold (1974), Shout at the Devil (1975), The Wild Geese (1978) and The Sea Wolves (1980).
After he bowed out of the Bond franchise, his films included Bullseye! (1990), co-starring Michael Caine, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s The Quest (1996) and Spice World (1997), the movie about the Spice Girls band.
In the popular UK stage tour of An Evening With Roger Moore, the actor looked back on his life and his work. Among his last screen appearances was the TV movie A Princess for Christmas (2013).
