Bond legend Moore loses battle with cancer

LONDON: Actor Roger Moore (pix), who won international fame playing British secret agent James Bond, died of cancer yesterday aged 89, his family said.

His 12 years as 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 on Twitter.

The son of a London policeman, Moore once said the upper-crust 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.

“I couldn’t walk into a restaurant on my own,” he once said, saying all that changed when he found fame in the role.

“(But) that’s not really me. Timid me would rather stay home and have a sandwich.”

Moore’s big breakthrough as an actor came in 1962, when he won the part of The Saint in a popular television series.

In 1973, came the coveted part of James Bond. Moore, who replaced Sean Connery as 007 and was the third actor to take on the role, starred in seven Bond movies said to have earned him US$22 million (RM94 million). – Reuters