RIP Roger Moore

Roger George Moore was born in Stockwell, south London on 14 October 1927, the son of a policeman.

At 15, he entered art college, and later became an apprentice at an animation studio.

Roger was sacked for incompetence, but soon had a stroke of luck. His father, by now a detective sergeant, was called to investigate a robbery at the home of the film director, Brian Desmond Hurst.

DS Moore managed to effect an introduction that led to his son being hired as an extra for the epic, Caesar and Cleopatra.

Roger studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, before a spell of National Service with the Army where he rose to the rank of captain.

It was through television that he first made his mark, as the dashing hero Ivanhoe in a 1950s series that had only a tentative connection with Sir Walter Scott's original novel.

He followed that with the lead role in an American TV series The Alaskans. It was not a great success. Despite being set in Alaska, it was filmed on a hot Hollywood set with the cast dressed up in furs.

He also appeared in the successful Western series Maverick, where he had the role of Beau Maverick, supposedly the English cousin of the lead character Brett, played by James Garner.

Roger's big breakthrough came in 1962 when the impresario Lew Grade cast him as the dashing Simon Templar aka The Saint, in a television adaptation of the Leslie Charteris stories.

The series, which ran for seven years, made Sir Roger a star on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of the Saint's characteristics, the easygoing manner, mocking eyebrow and ability to successfully charm every passing female, would later be incorporated into his role as James Bond.

In 1971 he teamed up with Tony Curtis in the TV series The Persuaders, as one of two wise-cracking millionaire playboys who floated around the fleshpots of the globe as a pair of freelance secret agents.

The success of the series owed a lot to the contrast of the rough-hewn New Yorker Danny Wilde, played by Curtis, and Sir Roger's suave Lord Brett Sinclair.

Roger replaced Sean Connery in the role of James Bond in 1973 for Live and Let Die.

He went on to make six more films, including The Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy, before bowing out of the role at the age of 57 with A View to a Kill. It was his last film appearance for five years.

Roger had some success in films such as Shout at the Devil, The Wild Geese and North Sea Hijack, but many of the newspaper headlines after he retired as Bond were about his life off screen.

He had homes in Switzerland and Monte Carlo, but devoted much of his time to travelling the globe as a roving ambassador for the United Nations children's organisation Unicef, a role prompted by the scenes of child poverty he had witnessed in India while filming Octopussy.

He took up the position at the request of his friend and predecessor, Audrey Hepburn. His work was recognised by a CBE in 1998 and he was knighted in 2003.

Roger Moore quotes

On his acting technique

"You just have to look at the lines, say them, and don't bump into the furniture."

On talent

"I believe any talent I have, any gift I possess, is merely loaned to me by a greater being."

On his upbringing

"My father believed in toughness, honesty, politeness and being on time. All very important lessons."

On working with Grace Jones

"Is it fun? Well, if you keep out of the way of her feet and her handbag, yes."

On playing pranks during filming

"I am absolutely evil with Desmond Llewelyn who plays Q because I secretly rewrite all of his dialogue before a scene and get the director to give him whole pages of this terrible technical junk which is impossible to learn. And he still falls for it? Yes, it gets him every time."

On Daniel Craig

"Daniel Craig is a far grittier Bond. I think that makes him a more real Bond. He's so good at being gritty. I mean he looks like a killer."

On death

"My attitude about death is, going into the next room, and it's a room that the rest of us can't get into because we don't have the key. But when we do get the key, we'll go in there and we'll see one another again, in some shape or form, or whatever."

I have gotten in so many arguments because I always liked him best as 007. I think it's probably because he was James Bond in the first few Bond films I ever saw.

i have grew up watching roger probably most of his works on tv and movies over the years. like most english actors, they have gentlemen's actor style that american's actors can't duplicate that well.

i thought roger had a good comedy sense that he enjoy laughed at himself in his acting. when roger talked on talk shows or interviews. he can laughed his performances in bonds movies and other works.

roger wasn't a great actor, he took his craft serious, but he like have to fun with it, too. he know his limitations of his acting. when he did serious roles, he was very good at them.

roger like do more comedy roles than serious roles, he had knack for them. most of james bonds films, he did more comedy bits than serious bits. most james bond's fans had mixed feelings, when they watched roger in " a view to kill ".

the movie was really stunk, it wasn't roger's fault, the story was bad. roger know to quit bond then, it was the right move. bronson should have quit after " the world is not enough" on a top note. bronson wait too long to quit, before he was fired after doing his last bond movie.

roger in public, he seem to be happy and comfortable in his life. in real life , is liking watching roger do one of his characters, with a cigar in his mouth with a big smile in his face.

r.i.p. roger

I agree. My first memories​ of bond is him. I guess it depends on how old you are to some degree.