Moore held Bond role the longest
Actor relied on good looks, self-deprecation in following Sean Connery in spy films
In a career that seemed impervious to critical drubbing, Roger Moore owed his enduring box office appeal to exceptionally good looks, terrific luck and a self-deprecating charm.
The English actor, who has died at age 89 in Switzerland, became an international star in playboy-adventurer roles, first on the hit 1960s TV series “The Saint” and later for his tongue-in-cheek film portrayal of the dashing spy James Bond.
The Bond franchise, in particular, cemented his fame like no other role. The movie franchise spun off from Ian Fleming’s novels about an Oxford-educated British spook who was impudent and resourceful, a wizard with women and weaponry, and impeccably dressed but capable of back-alley brutishness.
James Bond became a cultural phenomenon and one of the best-known screen creations of all time, played variously by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.
Connery helped launch the Bond movies with “Dr. No” in 1962 and defined the role for many viewers. But Moore was the longest-running Bond — starting with “Live and Let Die” (1973) and ending six films later with “A View to a Kill” (1985).
A London policeman’s son, Moore credited his mother with ridding him of a working-class accent that might have impeded his portrayal of the supremely cultured Bond. “She was very particular about behavior and manners and the way you treated people,” he once said. “I got a clip round the ear if I said ‘ain’t.’ ”
Claiming he wanted to beat the critics to the punch, Moore frequently made light of his limitations. “My acting range?” he once quipped. “Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised.”
He won a following as Simon Templar on the actionromance series “The Saint,” which aired for several years on British TV before landing on NBC from 1967 to 1969 and thereafter in perpetual reruns.
Starting with Moore, the James Bond series relied increasingly on gadgetry and cartoonish excess, such as when Bond jumps across the backs of snapping alligators in “Live and Let Die,” performs a cork-screw car jump over a broken bridge in “The Man With the Golden Gun” (1974), skis off a cliff in the opening of “The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977) and evades a guided missile in a pocket-sized jet plane in “Octopussy” (1983).
Moore, whose other Bond outings included “Moonraker” (1979) and “For Your Eyes Only” (1981), continued to underwhelm reviewers, who used words like “bland” and “passionless” to describe the actor’s way with a line and chemistry with his female co-stars. (He was 57 when he retired from the role.)
Moore’s Bond was cheered in theaters, and it made fortunes for the producers and for the actor. Faced with the question of who played the better Bond, Moore told an interviewer in 2013, “Sean Connery played him as a killer, and I’m a lover. I tried to be different — but it involved acting, unfortunately.”