Roger Moore

He was the only child of George Alfred Moore (1904–1997), a policeman based in Bow Street, London, and Lillian "Lily" Pope (1904–1986).

His mother was born in Calcutta, India, to an English family.

He attended Battersea Grammar School, but was evacuated to Holsworthy in Devon during the Second World War, and attended Launceston College in Cornwall.

He was further educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

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

Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor.

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

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

While there, Moore attracted an off-camera female fan following, and Hurst decided to pay Moore's fees at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

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

During his time there, he developed the Mid-Atlantic accent and relaxed demeanour that became his screen persona.

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

Moore made his professional debut in Alexander Korda's Perfect Strangers (1945) alongside actors Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, and Glynis Johns.

Other early uncredited appearances include Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), Gaiety George, Piccadilly Incident (both 1946), and Trottie True (1949), in which he appeared alongside an uncredited Christopher Lee (both actors being cast by Brian Desmond Hurst as stage-door Johnnies).

On 21 September 1946, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant.

He 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.

In his book Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown, Moore states that his first television appearance was on 27 March 1949 in The Governess by Patrick Hamilton, a live broadcast (as usual in that era), in which he played the minor part of Bob Drew.

Other actors in the show included Clive Morton and Betty Ann Davies.

He had uncredited parts in films including Paper Orchid and The Interrupted Journey (both 1949).

In the early 1950s Moore worked as a model, appearing in print advertisements in the UK for knitwear (earning him the nickname "The Big Knit") and a wide range of other products such as toothpaste.

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

He was in Drawing-Room Detective on TV and appeared in the films One Wild Oat and Honeymoon Deferred (both 1951).

He 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 (all 1953).

In March 1954, MGM signed Moore to a seven-year contract.

He started his MGM contract with a small role in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), flirting with Elizabeth Taylor.

He 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.

That same year, he played a supporting role in the swashbuckler The King's Thief starring Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven and George Sanders.

In the 1956 film Diane, Moore was billed third again, this time under Lana Turner and Pedro Armendariz, in a 16th-century period piece set in France with Moore playing Prince Henri, the future king.

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

In his own words, "At MGM, RGM [Roger George Moore] was NBG [no bloody good]."

Moore then freelanced for a time, appearing in episodes of Ford Star Jubilee (1956), Lux Video Theatre (1957) and Matinee Theatre (1957).

Moore's first success was playing the eponymous hero, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, in the 1958–59 series Ivanhoe, a loose adaptation of the 1819 romantic novel by Sir Walter Scott set in the 12th century during the era of Richard the Lionheart, delving into Ivanhoe's conflict with Prince John.

He also had roles in American series, including Beau Maverick on the Western Maverick (1960–1961), in which he replaced James Garner as the lead, and a co-lead, with Tony Curtis, in the action-comedy The Persuaders! (1971–1972).

On television, Moore played the lead role of Simon Templar, the title character in the British mystery thriller series The Saint (1962–1969).

He was the third actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1973 and 1985.

Moore's seven appearances as Bond, from Live and Let Die to A View to a Kill, are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.

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

In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.

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

Continuing to act on screen in the decades after his retirement from the Bond franchise, Moore's final appearance was in a pilot for a new Saint series that became a 2017 television film.