Sir Roger George Moore, thank you.
First and foremost known for the Television series The Saint...
Wait, what? That's not why you actually clicked this page, did you.
Tough.
Born 14 October 1927 in Stockwell, London, he was the Quintessential British Gentleman who first dabbled in the TV series Maverick as Beauregard Maverick, one of the interchangeable brothers for which the series was well known for. He also headlined a version of Ivanhoe. As previously mentioned, his part on The Saint got him his biggest role for which many people still know him to this day:
Roger Moore's relationship with the film series started with Live and Let Die and lasted until A View to a Kill. He was 45 when he started out and almost 58 when he wrapped things up, with the longest on-screen tenure in number of films to date, at sevennote . His era is known for being more lighthearted, often to the point of self-parody, making him somewhat divisive among fans of the series, and it is often debated how much of the self-parody was him and how much of it was the studio. That being said, he did have serious moments as Bond, which seem to have been severely underappreciated, possibly due to criticism focusing either on the silly moments or his age. He was succeeded by Timothy Dalton, who had a way more serious take on the character overall.
Unfortunately Sir Roger's affection for the role of Bond fluctuated. It seems on one hand he loved the job, but on the other hand, a great deal of I Am Not Spock feedback came from him. Reportedly, "Who's the best Bond!?" questions tended to leave a sour taste in his mouth (despite, you know, George Lazenby already having been there).
Later in his life, he retired as an actor, but seemed all right with doing a cameo here and there, and put his celebrity to good use in humanitarian activities — most notably as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, earning a knighthood in the process. He also filmed a role in the pilot for a new series based on The Saint, after having provided a voiceover for the ill-fated 1990s movie version.
He passed away from cancer on 23 May 2017 at the age of 89. He was the first actor to play James Bond in the Eon Productions film series to pass on; Sean Connery followed in October 2020.
Partial Filmography:
- Caesar and Cleopatra: Roman soldier
- Ivanhoe: Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe
- Maverick: Beauregard Maverick
- Romulus and the Sabines (1961): Romulus
- The Saint (1962-69): Simon Templar
- The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970): Harold Pelham
- The Persuaders!: Lord Brett Rupert George André Sinclair
- James Bond: Commander James Bond, Agent 007
- Live and Let Die (1973)
- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- Moonraker (1979)
- For Your Eyes Only (1981)
- Octopussy (1983)
- A View to a Kill (1985)
- Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976): Sherlock Holmes
- Shout at the Devil (1976): Sebastian Oldsmith.
- The Wild Geese (1978): Lt. Shawn Fynn.
- The Muppet Show
- North Sea Hijack (also released as ffolkes): Rufus Excalibur ffolkes
- Escape to Athena
- The Sea Wolves
- The Cannonball Run (1981): as Seymour Goldfarb, a man who thinks he's Roger Moore playing James Bond
- Curse of the Pink Panther: The Nth Doctor for Inspector Clouseau
- Bullseye: Gerald Bradley-Smith/Sir John Bavistock
- The Quest: Lord Edgar Dobbs
- Spice World: The Chief
- Alias (2002): Edward Poole
- Boat Trip (2003): Lloyd Faversham
- Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)
Tropes related to Sir Roger Moore:
- Actor-Inspired Element:
- His Bond being the most debonair of them all was essentially due to him.
- Before Moore, Bond never smoked cigars, neither in the Ian Fleming novels nor onscreen. That changed when he demanded an unlimited supply of fine cigars in his movie contracts and that Bond smoke them onscreen.
- Badass Driver: Was a trucker before he was an actor and did most of his own stunt driving.
- Beware the Nice Ones: His take on Bond was easily the most charming, debonair version but could be just as ruthless as the rest when needed. If the anecdote about Lee Marvin below is any indication, Moore was an example of this in real life as well.
- The Cameo: Most of his post-James Bond career in a nutshell. After playing such a big role for so long, he preferred taking on smaller or supporting roles.
- The Charmer: Most famously as Bond but pretty much every character he played was this due to his boundless charisma, sly wit and laid-back personality. By all accounts, he was very much the same in real life.
- Cool Old Guy: UNICEF ambassador, knight, and incredibly charming.
- Does Not Like Guns: He was accidentally shot in the leg when he was 14 and his hatred of guns only grew stronger as he got older. Although many of his characters handled firearms, it took a lot of cajoling to get him to actually shoot them on camera, and, oftentimes, those sequences were handled by stunt doubles.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: He probably did it better than Sean Connery. He even once joked that his acting range was "left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised".
- Gentleman Snarker: In real life, he was probably more of a snarker than Simon Templar and James Bond put together.
- I Am Not Spock: Averted. Unlike his predecessor's notorious frustration at his continued association with the role, Moore wasn't bothered in the least at being attached to James Bond or it being his career-defining role.
- In this story shared after his death
, a young fan met Moore at the airport and asked for his autograph, which he happily obliged. However, he was disappointed when he found it was signed "Roger Moore" and not "James Bond," not knowing the difference between the actor and the fictional character. Moore then rolled with it, taking the fan aside and telling him that he had to sign his name as "Roger Moore" or else his enemies might know where he was, making him promise not to tell anyone he had met James Bond. Some twenty years later, that same fan met Moore again on the set of a UNICEF commercial, and not only did Moore fully remember their encounter at the airport, he made the same joke that "Roger Moore" was his cover as he was getting ready to leave for fear that any of the film crew could've been working for Blofeld, making the now adult fan feel like an excited little kid all over again.
- In this story shared after his death
- I Am Very British: Oh so very much.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: He had arguably the most impressive jawline of all the Bonds.
- Large and in Charge: He was 6' 1½" (1.87 m), only slightly shorter than the two previous Bonds.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Critics often mocked him for not looking tough enough to be an action star. Moore beat up Lee Marvin, one of the critics who was rather tough himself. Marvin later admitted that "Moore may not look it, but he is built like granite".
- Older Than They Look: He was three years older than Sean Connery, and looked about ten years younger in his first two Bond films.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Both onscreen and out of it.
- Self-Deprecation: The foundation of his sense of humour. He described his emotional range as James Bond as "Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised, eyes crossed whilst being strangled by Jaws," and expressed shock at never being nominated for an Oscar despite learning a whole two more facial expressions. He was also the only Bond who freely admitted to using stunt doubles, saying "Of course I do all my own stunts. I do all my own lying, too."
- As mentioned in his filmography above, his character in The Cannonball Run is an eccentric millionaire who thinks he's Roger Moore — which apparently involves behaving like James Bond, right down to driving a fully tricked-out Aston Martin DB5 (even though, amusingly, that car is more associated with Roger's predecessor).
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Oh yes indeed.
- All of his suits for The Saint, The Persuaders!, James Bond, and a bunch of his other films and TV series were made by his real-life tailorsnote .
- Prior to his acting career kicking off, he worked as a model for knitwear, which earned Moore the nickname "The Big Knit".
