Sir Roger Moore, actor and longest-serving James Bond

Died: May 23, 2017

SIR Roger Moore, who has died aged 89 after suffering from cancer, was one of Britain’s best-known and best-loved actors.

It is not hard to attach the epitaph “best-loved” to Sir Roger. The public loved his self-deprecation. By his own admission, the man who would become a British institution when he played James Bond, was not the greatest thespian ever to appear on screen. He regularly downplayed his own talents, repeating the Spitting Image gag that most of his performance work involved little more than the lift of an eyebrow.

"You've got to have a sense of humour, otherwise the first time you see yourself on the screen you'll be ready to commit suicide,” he said in a recent interview with The Herald. “You think 'How awful I am'."

He wasn’t awful at all. While his eye-brows certainly played a part in his performance, Sir Roger was in fact RADA-trained. After leaving school at 15, he worked as an apprentice at an animated cartoon studio before being fired for lateness.

He went on to work as a movie extra and, while playing a Roman centurion in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), was spotted by then-assistant director Brian Desmond Hurst. Hurst paid for the young Roger Moore’s tuition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where the actor spent a year before moving on to modelling jobs (his was the face and body of several knitting patterns) while landing small parts on stage.

His acting was noticed however and he had offers from the RSC before running for the (Hollywood) hills.

Yet, while it seemed Roger George Moore was destined for greatness, he insisted he was not born confident. "I was nervously shy," said the son of a policeman and a housewife, who grew up in Stockwell.

His mother helped rid her son of his South London accent by making sure he attended grammar school. And her success was to allow him to play a series of limited, often preposterous roles such as princes and tennis players in Hollywood in the Fifties.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the actor was dumped unceremoniously after two years and a series of duds. “I wanted to play the heavies at times. But no-one ever saw me as a heavy. And I would have liked to have played the character roles in theatre and on film. But producers didn't think I had any. I was too nice."

His perfect appearance certainly influenced the less than perfect roles he was offered. The film critic Rex Reed once wrote that Roger Moore was frequently “prettier than his leading ladies.” Noel Coward once advised him; 'Young man, with your devastating good looks and disastrous lack of talent you should take any job every offered to you.'"

He did, and revealed real character. After Hollywood, he steeled himself to get back on the acting horse, with the British television series Ivanhoe in 1958. But the inbuilt insecurity was still there. A year later, and back in Hollywood to play the Duke of Wellington's nephew in a film, a vocal coach took him aside and changed his entire outlook on life.

“Joe Graham asked me 'Why, Roger, if you are six foot one, do you only stand five foot ten?' "He then asked when I spoke to people who had gone to university if I felt worried I may mispronounce a word. I said that was possible and he said; 'That's the problem. You have to stand taller. You have to do something with what you've been given'.”

Roger Moore reached up to his own height and became a Saint for seven years in the Sixties, and a Maverick. Later he was a Persuader on television, alongside his friend Tony Curtis. Any reports of fall-outs between he and his co-star were greatly exaggerated. "We just had different ways of going about filming," he suggested. "I liked to keep to the script."

Sir Roger played Bond in seven films – not the best Bond perhaps but a hugely successful one, until his bank account had swelled to an even greater size than his fluid-filled 58-year-old arthritic knees.

But even though critics claimed Roger Moore played himself essentially – the dashing, smooth, slightly roguish character with a strong liking for vintage wine and the ladies (not in that order of importance) – he played himself rather well. And audiences loved him.

Along the way, he married four times. He loved women and he revealed he was 15 when seduced in a doorway by an older (19-year-old) woman, which partially reduced his shyness.

He met his first wife, Doorn Van Steyn, at RADA aged 17 and married her at 19. “It was a mistake. We were too young. And it went wrong. For once, it wasn’t my fault. Then I met Dorothy Squires, who was wonderful. A lovely singer.” Squires was older. “Yes – nine years older, and very funny, with a great sense of humour. We laughed a lot. And there was a lot of passion.”

For passion read tempestuous battles and bricks being hurled through windows when Squires discovered Sir Roger to be less than a saint. “When I moved to Hollywood she would go off and I’d be left alone.”

The Saint-to-be admitted his halo slipped. He explained why he was so keen to keep on marrying, despite divorce proving so costly. He wooed his fourth wife, Kristina Tholstrup, while still married to Luisa Mattioli, the mother of his three children. The divorce was said to have cost him £10m. “Well, I’m an honourable person,” he offered. “If you have your way with the ladies then you should be prepared to marry them.” Such chivalry. “I find it very difficult to say no.” He added, grinning: “And I’ve only ever had one wife at a time.”

With the arrival of James Bond into his life, Moore became a superstar. He took it in his six-feet-one-inch stride. Turning up to work in the morning as Bond to be met by some of the most beautiful women in the world, from Maud Adams to Britt Ekland, wasn’t, he admitted, a punishment. "Well, I'm a man. And the blood does flow through my veins," he said. He reflected on women: “It may sound silly but I didn't know I was attractive to them. I think that's why I invented the confident, suave character Roger Moore."

His life was not all about playing himself and fun with the ladies. In 1991, Sir Roger became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, and he helped raise more than $90 million for a worldwide campaign to eliminate iodine deficiency and was knighted in 2003 as a result. “It’s the only worthwhile thing I’ve ever done,” he said.

He also worked for animal rights organisations. But in spite of seldom getting the chance to play anyone other than suave, debonair lovers and action heroes, Sir Roger said he had few career regrets. "Not really, although I really would have loved to have played Lawrence of Arabia. Or perhaps Albert Finney's character in Skyfall. But I really can't complain. I've had a great life, with a gorgeous wife and great kids. And I've had great friends, the likes of Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck and David Niven, who was wonderful.”

Sir Roger certainly displayed no jealousy in the direction of his chum Sean Connery, despite Connery’s accolades as the greatest Bond. Sir Roger continually reinforced Connery’s attributes, and sang the praises of the current Bond, Daniel Craig. He didn’t bother at all with comparisons.

In recent years, Sir Roger had to cope with a series of health problems; he had a liver operation, he was diabetic and had a pacemaker fitted. He also had his prostate removed. But this did not stop him touring the UK at the end of 2016 with his Audience With tour.

The actor, who was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, could have stayed home in Switzerland or Monaco, and relaxed, but no. What motivated Sir Roger Moore was not the desire to win an Oscar. What emerged from interviews was that Sir Roger loved being around people, particularly female people. "Old actors don't stop,” he smiled, quoting the adage. “The phone just stops ringing.”

And there is another reason why he worked to the age of 89. “I always think that tomorrow is going to be better than today," he said.

Sir Roger Moore was an optimist who clearly loved life, and his enthusiasm for it was infectious. But he wasn’t in denial about his mortality. In November, he realised his personal spotlight was fading. "I was thinking recently about Peter Sellers, Peter Finch, Frankie Howerd," he said poignantly, of friends since departed. "It got me wondering who's going to turn off the lights when I go."

Sir Roger Moore is survived by his wife Kristina “Kiki” Tholstrup; and three children from his third marriage, Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian.

BRIAN BEACOM