Former James Bond actor Roger Moore dies aged 89
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.
The son of a London policeman, Moore once said the uppercrust 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 part of The Saint in a popular television series of the same name. 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, who held cinemagoers across the world in thrall. The films were said to have earned Moore £14 million. He moved to the US to become a tax exile.
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.
In 1991, he became an ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund.