Former James Bond actor Roger Moore dead

May 23, 2017 Entertainment 53
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British actor Roger Moore, who won international fame playing secret agent James Bond, died on Tuesday aged 89, his family said on the actor’s official Twitter account.

His 12 years as James Bond, the British agent with a voracious appetite for danger and sex, made Moore a millionaire and a heartthrob the world over.

“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,” his three children announced in a statement on the Twitter account.

Dead.

The son of a London policeman, Moore once said the upper-crust image he portrayed both on and off the screen was a carefully nurtured cover for his shyness and timidity. He also said he was terrified of playing the sex scenes which were a key part of the Bond movies.

Moore’s big breakthrough as an actor came in 1962, when he won the title role in the television series The Saint. In this role, he honed his image of the urbane Englishman with a stream of damsels to rescue from distress.

In 1973 came the coveted part of James Bond, writer Ian Fleming’s action man spy 007, who held cinemagoers across the world in thrall. The Bond films were said to have earned Moore £14 million ($A24 million).

British actor Roger Moore, playing the title role of Agent 007, James Bond, is shown on location in England in 1972. Photo: AP

He moved to the United States to become a tax exile.

“I don’t see why a chap shouldn’t do what he likes and live where he wants on his money, and the British government, which allows talent to go abroad because of taxation, has only itself to blame,” he said in an interview in 1989.

After handing over the role of Bond to Timothy Dalton, Moore went into semi-retirement, living a millionaire’s life and travelling between his homes in Los Angeles, Switzerland and the south of France.

One of his Swiss neighbors, the actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn, got him involved with UNICEF, the United Nations agency focused on children’s health and safety.

In 1991, Moore became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, and he helped raise more than $US90 million for a worldwide campaign to eliminate iodine deficiency.

For his charitable work, Moore was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003.

*Story by The Sydney Morning Herald. 

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53 Comments

  20. kodi maliro amuthu wakuja mukuti uza ndiye kuti. kujako maliro akachiteka kumalawi kuja amatilengeza ngati kumalawi Rest in peace mr James Bond

    1. Sory vuto siiweyo.koma kusazsata coz even mfana wa primary akuuza za James Bond the only person who acted over 200 movies

    3. komaso mukati wa primary i dont know what ur talking about coz ndawafusa ana opitilira 100 aliyese palibe uyo akumuziwa. ndie wa primary wake mukunena otani?

  28. Okay let me confirm from his professional builder Rodriguez the guy who always make the new house to old fashion. Any way RIP the Legend actor. Rodriguez will miss you he is in Pretoria now to build a place where Lionel swusht want to make a new movie.

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