James Bond star Roger Moore dies at 89
British actor loses battle with cancer
LONDON // British actor Roger Moore, who won global fame playing secret agent James Bond, died yesterday aged 89.
“It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our loving father has passed away today in Switzerland after a short but brave battle with cancer,” his three children said.
His 12 years as Bond, the British agent with an appetite for danger and sex, made Moore a millionaire and a heartthrob. The son of a London policeman, Moore once said the upper-crust image he portrayed on and off the screen was a carefully nurtured cover for his timidity. He also said he was terrified of playing the sex scenes that were a key part of the Bond movies.
In 1973 he got the part of James Bond, writer Ian Fleming’s spy 007. The Bond films were said to have earned Moore £14 million (Dh80m).
“To me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous, so outrageous,” he once said. “I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy and yet, everybody knows he’s a spy. What kind of serious spy is recognised everywhere he goes?”
While he never eclipsed Sean Connery in the public’s eye as the definitive Bond, Moore did play 007 in as many films as Connery, and he did so while “finding a joke in every situation”, ac- cording to film critic Rex Reed.
After handing over the role of Bond to Timothy Dalton, Moore lived a millionaire’s life travelling between his homes in Los Angeles, Switzerland and the south of France. He also became an ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund in 1991.
Moore is survived by his fourth wife, Kristina “Kiki” Tholstrup, who he married in 2002.