1. Lois Maxwell was best known for portraying Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 Eon-produced James Bond films, from Dr No in 1962 to A View to a Kill in 1985.
25 Facts About Lois Maxwell
1. 2.
Lois Maxwell did not appear in the 1967 adaptation of Casino Royale, and in the 1983 remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, as neither of the productions was Eon's, though she did, as a similar character, appear in the spoofs OK.
3.
Lois Maxwell was born in Kitchener, Ontario, to Ruth Adelaide Wells, a nurse, and William Victor Hooker, a teacher.
4.
Lois Maxwell was raised in Toronto and attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute.
5.
Lois Maxwell gained her first job working as a waitress at Bigwin Inn, a summer resort on Bigwin Island in Lake of Bays, Ontario.
6.
Lois Maxwell quickly became part of the Army Show in Canada.
7.
Lois Maxwell made her first film appearances in 1946, appearing in the British films A Matter of Life and Death and Spring Song.
8.
One of her Italian films was an adaptation of the opera Aida, in which Lois Maxwell played a leading role, lip-synching to another woman's vocals and appearing in several scenes with the then unknown Sophia Loren.
9.
Lois Maxwell appeared with Patrick McGoohan in the British television series Danger Man as his accomplice in the 1959 episode "Position of Trust".
10.
Lois Maxwell provided the voice of Atlanta for the Supermarionation science-fiction children's series Stingray and starred in the CBC series Adventures in Rainbow Country from 1970 to 1971.
11.
Lois Maxwell had a minor role as a nurse in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita.
12.
In 1963 Lois Maxwell played a machine gun-firing nurse in the series The Avengers.
13.
Lois Maxwell had a guest appearance in an episode of the ITC series The Baron, as an insurance investigator.
14.
Lois Maxwell lobbied for a role in the James Bond film Dr No, after her husband had suffered a heart attack, and they needed the money.
15.
Director Terence Young, who had turned her down on the grounds that she "looked like she smelled of soap", offered her either Miss Moneypenny or Bond's girlfriend, Sylvia Trench, but Lois Maxwell was uncomfortable with the idea of a revealing scene outlined in the screenplay.
16.
Lois Maxwell played Moneypenny in the first 14 Eon Bond films: Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill.
17.
The role of Moneypenny was nearly recast after Lois Maxwell demanded a pay raise for Diamonds Are Forever.
18.
Moneypenny's undercover policewoman's cap disguises the hair Lois Maxwell had already dyed in preparation for another part.
19.
Lois Maxwell stayed on as Moneypenny when her former classmate Roger Moore assumed the role of 007 in Live and Let Die.
20.
Lois Maxwell reprised her character, weeping for the death of Bond, in a short scene with Bernard Lee in the French comedy Bons baisers de Hong Kong.
21.
Lois Maxwell asked that Moneypenny be killed off, but Broccoli recast the role instead.
22.
Lois Maxwell's husband died in 1973, having never fully recovered from his heart attack in the 1960s.
23.
Lois Maxwell subsequently returned to Canada, settling in Fort Erie, Ontario, where she lived on Oakes Drive.
24.
Lois Maxwell spent her summers at a cottage outside Espanola, Ontario, where she wrote a weekly column for the Toronto Sun under the pseudonym "Miss Moneypenny" from 1979 until 1994, and became a businesswoman working in the textile industry.
25.
Lois Maxwell remained there, working on her autobiography, until her death at Fremantle Hospital on 29 September 2007.