Suave English actor Roger
Moore passed away today in Switzerland at the age of 89 "after a short but
brave battle with cancer."
The news came from
his children, whom shared a statement on the actor's official Twitter account.
With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated. pic.twitter.com/6dhiA6dnVg— Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) May 23, 2017
Before becoming known
as James Bond, Moore gained his repute as a smooth leading man on such
television series as Maverick, The Saint, and The Persuaders.
After George Lazenby
one and only time as 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moore took over
and starred in a total of seven films, them being 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), and A View to a Kill (1985).
"My
personality is entirely different than previous Bonds. I’m not that
cold-blooded killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs," he
once said.
After
leaving the Bond franchise, Moore acted sporadically, and in a 2014 interview,
the actor lamented that he was always offered the good guy role.
"I wasn’t an
Albert Finney or a Tom Courtenay," he said. "I didn’t have their
natural talent, I had to work quite hard at acting. My life’s been all right,
but people like that get to play wonderful parts. I spent my life playing
heroes because I looked like one. Practically everything I’ve been offered
didn’t require much beyond looking like me. I would have loved to have played a
real baddie."
During his career,
Moore worked with Elizabeth Taylor, David Niven, Lana Turner, Carroll Baker,
Tony Curtis, Lee Marvin, Gregory Peck, Richard Burton, Burt Reynolds, John
Huston, Richard Harris, and Christopher Lee.
In 1999, Moore was
awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by
Queen Elizabeth II, and was knighted not too long after that in 2003. The actor
spent several years doing charity work as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
"With the
passing of Sir Roger Moore, the world has lost one of its great champions for
children — and the entire UNICEF family has lost a great friend," UNICEF
executive director Anthony Lake said in a statement. "In his most famous
roles as an actor, Sir Roger was the epitome of cool sophistication; but in his
work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he was a passionate – and highly
persuasive – advocate for children. He once said that it was up to all of us to
give children a more peaceful future. Together with [his wife] Lady Kristina,
he worked very hard to do so."
Lastly, "George [Lazenby], Timothy [Dalton] and
Pierce [Brosnan], we’ve been together, the four of us. But Sean, Sean really
was sort of not that enamored of being confused with James Bond all the time.
Sean … damn good actor, but he felt that he was only being remembered for Bond.
I personally don’t give a damn. I just want to be remembered as somebody who
paid his debts."
Moore is survived by wife Kristina, whom he married in
2002, and his children (from his first marriage) Deborah, Geoffrey, and Christian.
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