97 Facts About Roger Moore

On television Roger Moore played the lead role of Simon Templar, the title character in the British mystery thriller series The Saint.

Roger Moore was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for services to charity.

Roger Moore was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2008.

Roger George Moore was born on 14 October 1927 in Stockwell, London.

Roger Moore was the only child of George Alfred Moore, a policeman based in Bow Street, London, and Lillian "Lily" Pope.

Roger Moore's mother was born in Calcutta, India, to an English family.

Roger Moore was apprenticed to an animation studio, but he was sacked after he made a mistake with some animation cels.

When his father investigated a robbery at the home of the film director Brian Desmond Hurst, Roger Moore was introduced to the director and hired as an extra for the 1945 film Caesar and Cleopatra.

Roger Moore spent three terms at RADA, where he was a classmate of his future Bond co-star Lois Maxwell, the original Miss Moneypenny.

At 18, shortly after the end of the Second World War, Roger Moore was conscripted for national service.

Roger Moore was an officer in the Combined Services Entertainment section, eventually becoming a captain commanding a small depot in West Germany, where he looked after entertainers for the armed forces passing through Hamburg.

Roger Moore made his professional debut in Alexander Korda's Perfect Strangers alongside actors Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, and Glynis Johns.

Roger Moore had uncredited parts in films including Paper Orchid and The Interrupted Journey.

Roger Moore was in Drawing-Room Detective on TV and appeared in the films One Wild Oat and Honeymoon Deferred.

Roger Moore travelled to the United States and began to work in television.

Roger Moore appeared in adaptations of Julius Caesar and Black Chiffon, and in two episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents, as well as the TV movie The Clay of Kings.

Roger Moore started his MGM contract with a small role in The Last Time I Saw Paris, flirting with Elizabeth Taylor.

Roger Moore appeared in Interrupted Melody, a biographical movie about opera singer Marjorie Lawrence's recovery from polio, in which he was billed third under Glenn Ford and Eleanor Parker as Lawrence's brother Cyril.

Roger Moore was released from his MGM contract after two years following the film's critical and commercial failure.

Roger Moore then freelanced for a time, appearing in episodes of Ford Star Jubilee, Lux Video Theatre and Matinee Theatre.

Roger Moore signed another long-term contract to a studio, this time to Warner Bros.

That same year, Roger Moore was directed by Arthur Hiller in "The Angry Young Man", an episode of the television series The Third Man starring Michael Rennie as the criminal mastermind Harry Lime, the role portrayed by Orson Welles in the film version.

Roger Moore found the work highly taxing, and his off-camera affair with Provine complicated matters even more.

Roger Moore appeared as the character in 14 episodes after Garner had left the series at the end of the previous season, wearing some of Garner's costumes; while filming The Alaskans, he had already recited much of Garner's dialogue, for the Alaskan series frequently recycled Maverick scripts, changing only the names and locales.

Roger Moore had filmed a Maverick episode with Garner two seasons earlier, in which Moore played a different character, in a retooling of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 comedy of manners play The Rivals.

Kathleen Crowley was Roger Moore's leading lady in two episodes, and others included Mala Powers, Roxane Berard, Fay Spain, Merry Anders, Andra Martin and Jeanne Cooper.

Roger Moore was originally slated to appear with both Jack Kelly and Robert Colbert in the series but by the time Colbert starred in his first episode, Roger Moore had already left the series.

Roger Moore was still under contract with Warners, who cast him in The Sins of Rachel Cade, making love to a nun played by Angie Dickinson, and Gold of the Seven Saints, supporting Clint Walker.

Roger Moore went to Italy to make the adventure comedy Romulus and the Sabines.

Roger Moore said in an interview in 1963 that he wanted to buy the rights to Leslie Charteris's character and the trademarks.

Sir Roger Moore wrote the book in how to raise an eyebrow.

Roger Moore went on to direct nine episodes of the later series, which moved into colour in 1967.

Roger Moore made two films immediately after the series ended: Crossplot, a lightweight 'spy caper' movie, and the more challenging The Man Who Haunted Himself.

Curtis refused to spend more time on set than was strictly necessary, while Roger Moore was always willing to work overtime.

Roger Moore's Bond was very different from the version created by Ian Fleming and the one portrayed by Connery.

Screenwriters such as George MacDonald Fraser provided scenarios in which Roger Moore was cast as a seasoned, debonair playboy who would always have a trick or gadget in stock when he needed it.

Roger Moore stated in his autobiography My Word Is My Bond that he had neither been approached to play the character in Dr No, nor did he feel that he had ever been considered.

Only after Sean Connery had declared in 1966 that he would not play Bond any longer did Roger Moore become aware that he might be a contender for the role.

Roger Moore was paid US$200,000 plus a percentage of the profits.

Roger Moore made his second Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, which was a hit, though less successful than Live and Let Die.

Roger Moore then made a comedy That Lucky Touch which was a box office disaster.

Roger Moore made an Italian-shot action film Street People, then went back to South Africa for another Klinger-Hunt movie from a Wilbur Smith novel, Shout at the Devil, which was successful in Britain, though less so in the US.

Roger Moore returned for a third outing as Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, which was a massive box-office success.

Roger Moore returned to South Africa for a third action movie shot there, The Wild Geese, produced by Euan Lloyd and directed by Andrew V McLaglen.

Roger Moore played the lead in Escape to Athena partly financed by Lew Grade.

Roger Moore plays a charming former Austrian antiquities dealer turned crooked camp commandant, asked to guard Greek antiquities desired by the Third Reich, and guard the collection of archaeologists who are being forced to work to find and recover these objects, but he has other plans for the treasure he guards and for the people under his watch.

Roger Moore followed the success of his fourth outing as Bond, Moonraker, with an action film, North Sea Hijack, known as ffolkes.

Roger Moore was in two all-star comedies: Sunday Lovers, which flopped at the box office, and The Cannonball Run, which was a hit.

Roger Moore returned for his fifth outing as Bond in For Your Eyes Only.

Roger Moore made a cameo as Chief Inspector Clouseau, posing as a famous movie star, in Curse of the Pink Panther.

Roger Moore starred in his final Bond film, A View to a Kill.

The British satirical puppet show Spitting Image had a sketch in which their latex likeness of Roger Moore, when asked to display emotions by an offscreen director, did nothing but raise an eyebrow; Roger Moore himself stated that he thought the sketch was funny and took it in good humour.

In 2009 Roger Moore appeared in an advertisement for the Post Office.

In 2015 Roger Moore was named one of GQ's 50 best-dressed British men.

Roger Moore was the voice of Father Christmas or 'Santa' in the 2004 UNICEF cartoon The Fly Who Loved Me.

Roger Moore was an active proponent of animal welfare causes, particularly in his later life.

Roger Moore worked prolifically alongside PETA in campaigning against foie gras, narrating short exposes in 2006 and 2012, as well as appearing in ad campaigns, some of which he personally funded.

Roger Moore wrote columns in various publications, and directly to politicians and businesses, regarding the issue.

Roger Moore publicly raised awareness regarding the living conditions of Morgan, a wild-caught killer whale who had been taken into captivity, as well as successfully leading the campaign to ban the use of wild animals in British circuses.

Roger Moore was an outspoken critic of sport hunting; in response to the killing of Cecil the lion, an incident which sparked global outrage, The Telegraph published an opinion piece by Moore:.

In 1952 Roger Moore met the Welsh singer Dorothy Squires, who was 12 years his senior, and Van Steyn and Roger Moore divorced the following year.

Squires suffered a series of miscarriages during their marriage, and Roger Moore later said the outcome of their marriage might have been different if they had been able to have children.

Roger Moore reached through the glass and grabbed my shirt and she cut her arms doing it.

Roger Moore paid Squires's hospital bills after her cancer treatment in 1996; she died in 1998.

In later life, he co-founded Hush Restaurant in Mayfair, London, with Jamie Barber, and released a single in 2023 under the name Jaffa Roger Moore called "You and I" which featured vocals from the late Glee actor Naya Rivera and included host of stars in the music video miming along to the song.

Roger Moore's younger son, Christian, is a film producer and has four children: a daughter from his first marriage to Heidi Roger Moore, and two sons and a daughter from his second marriage to Lara Sidawi.

Roger Moore and Mattioli separated in 1993 after Roger Moore developed feelings for a Swedish-born Danish socialite, Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup.

Roger Moore later described his prostate cancer diagnosis in 1993 as "life-changing", which led him to reassess his life and marriage.

Mattioli and Tholstrup had long been friends, but Mattioli was scathing of her in the book she subsequently wrote about her relationship with Roger Moore, Nothing Lasts Forever, describing how she felt betrayed by Tholstrup and discarded by Roger Moore.

Roger Moore remained silent on his divorce from Mattioli, later saying that he did not wish to hurt his children by "engaging in a war of words".

Roger Moore's children refused to speak to him for a period after the divorce, but they were later reconciled with their father.

Roger Moore said that his marriage to Tholstrup was "a tranquil relationship, there are no arguments".

Christina Knudsen died of cancer on 25 July 2016, at the age of 47; Roger Moore wrote, "We are heartbroken" and "We were all with her, surrounding her with love, at the end".

On politics, Roger Moore stated he was a conservative and thought that conservatism is the way to run a country.

Roger Moore was described as a "lifelong" supporter of the Conservative Party and endorsed the party during the 2001 general election.

However, Roger Moore expressed a reluctance to be seen as an overtly political figure and felt his work with UNICEF meant that he could not involve himself directly in politics.

In 2007, Roger Moore voiced his support to workers from the Cadbury chocolate factory at Keynsham who were protesting against the plant's closure.

Roger Moore became a tax exile from the United Kingdom in 1978, originally to Switzerland, and divided his year between his four homes: an apartment in Monte Carlo, a holiday house in the coastal Tuscan town of Castiglione della Pescaia, a chalet in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and a home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.

Roger Moore became a resident of Monaco, having been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of Monaco by Prince Albert II for his efforts in internationally promoting and publicising the principality.

Roger Moore had a series of diseases during his childhood, including chickenpox, measles, mumps, double pneumonia and jaundice, and had his appendix, tonsils, and adenoids removed.

Roger Moore was a long-term sufferer of kidney stones and as a result was briefly hospitalised during the making of Live and Let Die in 1973 and again whilst filming the 1979 film Moonraker.

Whilst filming the boat chase in Live and Let Die, Roger Moore crashed a speedboat and suffered a fractured tooth and concussion.

In 1993 Roger Moore was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent successful treatment for the disease.

In 2003 Roger Moore collapsed on stage while appearing on Broadway, and was fitted with a pacemaker to treat a potentially deadly slow heartbeat.

Roger Moore was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2013.

Roger Moore died in the presence of his family at his home in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on 23 May 2017, from cancers of the lung and liver.

Roger Moore had friendships with some of Denmark's royal family; Prince Joachim and his then-wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, invited Roger Moore and his wife Kiki to attend the christening of their youngest son, Prince Felix.

Roger Moore had a long-standing friendship with Princess Lilian of Sweden, whom he first met on a visit to Stockholm for UNICEF.

Roger Moore's wife Kristina, who was born in Sweden, was already a friend of Princess Lilian's through mutual friends.

Roger Moore spoke of his recollections at the princess's memorial service at St Peter and St Sigfrid's Church in Stockholm, on 8 September 2013.

Roger Moore handled the tone of the role perfectly, pitching his delivery somewhere between the camp kitsch of [Pierce Brosnan] and the smouldering cool of Connery.

Roger Moore's 007 was, in a word, fun: never above a wry laugh, preferably with a dry Martini in hand.

Roger Moore was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1999 New Year Honours and was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Birthday Honours for charitable services, especially UNICEF and latterly Kiwanis International, which had dominated his public life for more than a decade.

On 11 October 2007, three days before he turned 80, Roger Moore was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work on television and in film.

Roger Moore's star was the 2,350th star installed, and is appropriately located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard.

On 21 November 2012 Roger Moore was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire for his outstanding contributions to the British film and television industry for over 50 years, in particular film and television productions in Hertfordshire.

Roger Moore is contentiously credited with inspiring the Walls Magnum ice cream.