London: British actor Roger Moore was never one to boast about his acting ability, but then the facts spoke for themselves — he played James Bond in more films than any other man.
Known for his ironically raised eyebrow and deadpan quips, Moore’s take on the suave superspy was more tongue-in-cheek than that of his manly predecessor Sean Connery.
But he outgunned Con-nery and all the other actors to have played 007 by taking the role he fondly called “Jimmy Bond” in a record number of seven films.
Moore was also one of the last of the old-style movie stars, who counted Frank Sinatra and David Niven among his friends and lived in luxury in Switzerland and the French Riviera.
He went on to become a real-life hero as an ambassador for Unicef, even as he downplayed his own talents. “I'm not that cold-blooded killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs,” he once said.
Born Roger George Moore, on October 14, 1927 in the London suburb of Stockwell, he was the only son of a police constable and his wife, and had a happy childhood.
Moore began his acting career as an extra in the 1940s before studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He landed an MGM studio contract, but only had supporting roles during the 1950s.
It was not until the following decade that he achieved worldwide fame, starring in British TV show The Saint as smooth-talking adventurer Simon Templar. He also played alongside Tony Curtis in the 1970s crime series The Persuaders.
Moore said in his autobiography he was approached about playing James Bond, novelist Ian Fleming’s fictional secret agent, as early as 1967.
But it was not until 1973 that he finally won the role — despite, at 45, being two-and-a-half years older than Connery, the man he replaced.
Moore made his debut in Live and Let Die, after the producers made him lose weight, get fit and cut his hair.
He followed it with The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Octopussy (1983) before bowing out after A View to a Kill in 1985, when he was 57.
“Sadly, I had to retire from the Bond films,” Moore said at a ceremony to award him a star on Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame”, just ahead of his 80th birthday. “The girls were getting younger and I was just getting too old.”
