ROGER MOORE

(14 October 1927 - 23 May 2017)

London-born actor Roger Moore first had an interest in being an artist. After art school he was apprenticed to an animation studio but a chance meeting with Brian Desmond Hurst led to the director offering to pay for his studies at Rada. At 17 Moore was an uncredited extra in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) and many other films but the following year he joined the Royal Army Service Corps. Modelling work then came his way and he was seen on many a Paton & Baldwin’s knitting pattern. His TV debut was in Patrick Hamilton’s The Governess in 1949 and then the early 1950s saw him in US television series until he finally gained a contract with MGM for The Last Time I Saw Paris, Interrupted Melody, The King’s Thief and Diane. Further television work led to the Ivanhoe series, The Alaskans and Maverick, playing James Garner’s brother. Other films included The Sins of Rachel Cade and Gold of the Seven Saints until The Saint series came along. This gave Roger Moore global fame and another series, The Persuaders, with Tony Curtis. Bond, James Bond, sealed Moore’s celebrity with Live and Let Die and then The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill. Other films interspersed during the 007 years were never as popular, although titles such as Gold, Shout at the Devil, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves and The Cannonball Run were all successful. Moore continued in films but his main work by the 1990s was as a Goodwill Ambassador for Unicef, the work that he was most proud of and for which he won several awards. He was made CBE in 1999 and knighted in 2003. For his acting work he received a Golden Globe among several other gongs. Roger Moore had four wives including the singer Dorothy Squires and he fathered three children by Luisa Mattioli, his third wife. He died in Switzerland after a short battle with cancer.

MICHAEL DARVELL