Roger Moore

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Bond: An eyebrow raising dossier on the archetypal Englishman best known for his portrayal of 007. The only Bond faced with the challenge of looking cool in a safari suit...

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Roger Moore
born: 14-10-1927
birth place: Stockwell, South London

Moore’s big international breakthrough came in 1962 when he won the role of suave spy, Simon Templar, in ‘The Saint’ (1962). It was a British made television series based on The Saint novels by Leslie Charteris but also appealed to the American and other markets, finally making Moore a household name. In 1967, the series began being filmed in colour and Moore directed some of the later shows. Tiring of the role, he ended his run with the show in 1969 as a big star in the UK. Alongside his Templar role, Moore continued to make films and work in television.

Once again, he had been spending more time with his work than with his wife. In fact, he had been living with Luisa Mattioli for a number of years, as man and wife, and they had two children, Deborah Moore (b. 1963, now an actress) and Geoffrey Robert Moore (b. 1966, now a restaurateur). Even although the relationship had irrevocably broken down, Dorothy Squires resolutely refused him a divorce all through these years but finally relented in 1968 (she died in 1995 of cancer).

On 11th April 1969, Moore married Luisa Mattioli and they later had a son, Christian Moore (b. 1973). He went straight to work on two more films, starring as Gary Fenn in the spy caper ‘Crossplot’ (1969) and as Harold Pelham in ‘The Man Who Haunted Himself’ (1970). It was this more challenging role as Pelham that showed Moore’s acting talents lay beyond the light-hearted roles he has thus far played. Moving back to television, he starred with Tony Curtis in ITC TV’s cult series ‘The Persuaders!’ (1971). The show proved popular in Europe but didn’t really catch on in America and was cancelled.

Having already been in more than twenty largely mediocre films, as well as numerous television series, Moore’s big scoop finally came in 1973, when he was offered the role of James Bond in ‘Live and Let Die’ (1973), taking over from Sean Connery. Cinema audiences were wary of the change, as Connery had become the iconic Bond, but Moore’s urbane portrayal of the character won their hearts. In fact the movie grossed more outside of the US than ‘Diamonds are Forever’ (1971), Connery’s last Bond film. Wrapped up in his success, Moore wrote a book about his experiences during the filming of ‘Live and Let Die’, based on the diaries he kept. The book ‘Roger Moore as James Bond: Roger Moore’s own account of filming Live and Let Die’ was published by Pan Books, London in 1973 and acknowledged Sean Connery’s contribution to the Bond legend.

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Links relating to this biography:
Roger Moore Official Website