Roger Moore

Sir Roger George Moore, (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He is best known for having played Ian Fleming's British secret agent James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985. He also played Simon Templar in the television series The Saint from 1962 to 1969 and Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders! from 1971 to 1972 with Tony Curtis.

Moore took over the role of Bond from Sean Connery in 1972, made his first appearance as 007 in Live and Let Die (1973), and went on to portray the spy in six more films until his retirement from the role in 1985. Appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991, Moore 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 work in television and in film. In 2008, the French government appointed Moore a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Early life
Roger Moore was born on 14 October 1927 in Stockwell, London. He was the only child of George Alfred Moore, a policeman (PC168E based in Bow Street, London), and Lillian "Lily" (Pope). His mother was born in Calcutta, India, to an English family. He attended Battersea Grammar School, but was evacuated to Holsworthy, Devon, during World War II, and attended Launceston College in Cornwall. He was further educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

Moore apprenticed at an animation studio, but was fired after he made a mistake with some animation cells. 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 this time there, he developed the Mid-Atlantic accent and relaxed demeanour that would become his screen persona.

At 18, shortly after the end of World War II, Moore was conscripted for national service. On 21 September 1946, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant. He was given the service number 372394. He was an officer in the Combined Services Entertainment section and eventually became a captain, commanding a small depot in West Germany. He later looked after entertainers for the armed forces passing through Hamburg.

Early work (1945–1951)
Moore had some early uncredited appearances in Perfect Strangers (1945), Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), Gaiety George (1946) Piccadilly Incident (1946) and Trottie True (1949) appearing alongside an uncredited Christopher Lee (both actors cast by ''Brian Desmond Hurst as stage-door Johnnies).

In the early 1950s, Moore worked as a model, appearing in print advertisements for knitwear (earning him the nickname "The Big Knit"), and a wide range of other products such as toothpaste, an element that many critics have used as typifying his lightweight credentials as an actor.

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), and he played the minor part of Bob Drew. Other actors in the show included Clive Morton and Betty Ann Davies.

He had a small role in TV in A House in the Square (1949) then had uncredited parts in films like Paper Orchid (1949), Trottie True (1949) and The Interrupted Journey (1949). He was in Drawing-Room Detective on TV and appeared in the films One Wild Oat (1951) and Honeymoon Deferred (1951).

Early work in the USA (1952–1953)
Moore travelled to the US and begin to work in television. He was in adaptations of Julius Caesar (1953) and Black Chiffon (1953) and in two episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents (1953). He was also in a TV movie The Clay of Kings (1953). Then in March 1954 MGM signed him to a long term contract.

MGM (1954–1956)
Moore 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]."

Freelancing and Ivanhoe (1957–1959)
Moore 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. Shot mainly in England at Elstree Studios and Buckinghamshire, some of the show was also filmed in California due to a partnership with Columbia Studios' Screen Gems. Aimed at younger audiences, the pilot was filmed in colour, a reflection of its comparatively high budget for a British children's adventure series of the period, but subsequent episodes were shot in black and white. Christopher Lee and John Schlesinger were among the show's guest stars, and series regulars included Robert Brown (who in the 1980s would play M in several James Bond films) as the squire Gurth, Peter Gilmore as Waldo Ivanhoe, Andrew Keir as villainous Prince John, and Bruce Seton as noble King Richard. Moore suffered broken ribs and a battle-axe blow to his helmet while performing some of his own stunts filming a season of 39 half-hour episodes, and later reminisced, "I felt a complete Charlie riding around in all that armour and damned stupid plumed helmet. I felt like a medieval fireman."

Warner Bros
After that, he spent a few years mainly doing one-shot parts in television series, including an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1959 titled "The Avon Emeralds". He signed another long-term contract to a studio, this time to Warner Bros.

In 1959, he took the lead role in The Miracle, a version of the play Das Mirakel for Warner Bros. showcasing Carroll Baker as a nun. The part had been turned down by Dirk Bogarde. That same year, Moore was directed by Arthur Hiller in "The Angry Young Man", an episode of the television series The Third Man starring Michael Rennie as criminal mastermind Harry Lime, the role portrayed by Orson Welles in the film version.

The Alaskans (1959–1960)
Moore's next television series involved playing the lead as "Silky" Harris for the ABC/Warner Bros. 1959–60 Western The Alaskans, with co-stars Dorothy Provine as Rocky, Jeff York as Reno, and Ray Danton as Nifty. The show ran for a single season of 37 hour-long episodes on Sunday nights. Though set in Skagway, Alaska, with a focus on the Klondike Gold Rush around 1896, the series was filmed in the hot studio lot at Warner Bros. in Hollywood with the cast costumed in fur coats and hats. Moore found the work highly taxing and his off-camera affair with Provine complicated matters even more.

He subsequently appeared as the questionable character "14 Karat John" in the two-part episode "Right Off the Boat" of the ABC/WB crime drama The Roaring 20s, with Rex Reason, John Dehner, Gary Vinson, and Dorothy Provine, appearing in a similar role, but with a different character name.

Maverick (1960–1961)
In the wake of The Alaskans, Moore was cast as Beau Maverick, an English-accented cousin of frontier gamblers Bret Maverick (James Garner), Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly), and Brent Maverick (Robert Colbert) in the much more successful ABC/WB Western series Maverick. Sean Connery was flown over from Britain to test for the part, but turned it down.

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 since the Klondike series frequently recycled Maverick scripts, changing only the names and locales. He had also 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 entitled "The Rivals". In the course of the story, Moore and Garner's characters switched names on a bet, with Moore consequently identifying himself as "Bret Maverick" through most of the episode.

Moore's debut as Beau Maverick occurred in the first episode of the 1960–61 fourth season, "The Bundle From Britain", one of four episodes in which he shared screen time with cousin Bart (Jack Kelly). Robert Altman wrote and directed "Bolt from the Blue", an episode featuring Will Hutchins as a frontier lawyer similar to his character in the series Sugarfoot, and "Red Dog" found Beau mixed up with vicious bank robbers Lee Van Cleef and John Carradine. Kathleen Crowley was Moore's leading lady in two episodes ("Bullet For the Teacher" and "Kiz"), and others included Mala Powers, Roxane Berard, Fay Spain, Merry Anders, Andra Martin, and Jeanne Cooper. Upon leaving the series, Moore cited a decline in script quality since the Garner era as the key factor in his decision to depart, ratings for the show were also down.

Moore was still under contract with Warners who put him in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), making love to a nun played by Angie Dickinson, and Gold of the Seven Saints (1961), supporting Clint Walker. He went to Italy to make Romulus and the Sabines (1961).

The Saint (1962–1969)


Lew Grade cast Moore as Simon Templar in a new adaptation of The Saint, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris. Moore said in an interview in 1963 that he wanted to buy the rights to Leslie Charteris's character and the trademarks. He also joked that the role was supposed to have been meant for Sean Connery, who was unavailable. The television series was made in the UK with an eye to the American market, and its success there (and in other countries) made Moore a household name. By early 1967, he had achieved international stardom. The series also established his suave, quipping style which he carried forward to James Bond. Moore went on to direct several episodes of the later series, which moved into colour in 1967.

The Saint ran from 1962 for six series and 118 episodes, tying The Avengers as the longest-running series of its kind on British television. Moore grew increasingly tired of the role, and was keen to branch out.

Post-Saint films (1969–1971)
He made two films immediately after the series ended: Crossplot (1969), a lightweight 'spy caper' movie, and the more challenging The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970). Directed by Basil Dearden, it gave Moore the opportunity to demonstrate a wider versatility than the role of Simon Templar had allowed. In 2004, Moore said of The Man Who Haunted Himself: "It was one of the few times I was allowed to act... Many say my best role was in The Man Who Haunted Himself. Being a modest actor, I won't disagree."

The Persuaders! (1971–1972)
Television lured Moore back to star alongside Tony Curtis in The Persuaders!. The show featured the adventures of two millionaire playboys across Europe. Moore was paid the then-unheard-of sum of £1 million for a single series, making him the highest paid television actor in the world. Lew Grade claimed in his autobiography Still Dancing, that Moore and Curtis "didn't hit it off all that well". Curtis refused to spend more time on set than was strictly necessary, while Moore was always willing to work overtime.

According to the DVD commentary, neither Roger Moore, an uncredited co-producer, nor Robert S. Baker, the credited producer, ever had a contract other than a handshake with Lew Grade. They produced the entire 24 episodes without a single written word guaranteeing that they would ever be paid.

The series failed in the United States, where it had been sold to ABC, which Curtis put down to its showing at the Saturday 10 pm slot, but it was successful in Europe and Australia. In Germany, where the series was aired under the name Die Zwei ("The Two"), it became a hit through especially amusing dubbing which only barely used translations of the original dialogue. In Britain, it was also popular, although on its premiere on the ITV network, it was beaten in the ratings by repeats of Monty Python's Flying Circus on BBC One. Channel 4 repeated both The Avengers and The Persuaders! in 1995. Since then, The Persuaders! has been issued on DVD, while in France, where the series (entitled Amicalement Vôtre) had always been popular, the DVD releases accompanied a monthly magazine of the same name.

Live and Let Die (1973)


Due to his commitment to several television shows, in particular The Saint, Roger Moore was unavailable for the James Bond films for a considerable time. His participation in The Saint was as actor, producer, and director, and he also became involved in developing the series The Persuaders!. In 1964, he made a guest appearance as James Bond in the comedy series Mainly Millicent, Moore stated in his autobiography My Word Is My Bond (2008) 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 Moore become aware that he might be a contender for the role. After George Lazenby was cast in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Connery played Bond again in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Moore did not consider the possibility until it seemed clear that Connery had stepped down as Bond for good. At that point, Moore was approached, and he accepted producer Albert Broccoli's offer in August 1972. In his autobiography, Moore writes that he had to cut his hair and lose weight for the role. Although he resented having to make those changes, he was finally cast as James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973).

Moore then made Gold (1974), based on a novel by Wilbur Smith for producer Michael Klinger and director Peter R. Hunt (who had directed and edited some Bond films). He was paid US$200,000 plus a percentage of the profits.

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Moore made his second Bond, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), which was a hit though less successful than Live and Let Die. It featured Christopher Lee as the main antagonist. Also appearing are Britt Ekland, Herve Villechaize, and Maud Adams, who later starred in Octopussy, and A View to a Kill, subsequent Bond films with Roger Moore playing the lead.

He then made a comedy That Lucky Touch (1975) which was a box office disaster.

He made an Italian-shot action film Street People (1976), then went back to South Africa for another Klinger-Hunt movie from a Wilbur Smith novel, Shout at the Devil (1976), which was successful in England, though less so in the US. Lee Marvin was a main cast member. Ian Holm was also featured, as well as Barbara Parkins.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
For American TV Moore played the title role in Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) then was back as Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), a massive success. With Barbara Bach, and Richard Kiel in his first appearance as the huge, but not brainy villain, Jaws.

He returned to South Africa for a third action movie shot there, The Wild Geese (1978), produced by Euan Lloyd and directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. It was a sizeable hit in Britain and Europe but, like Shout at the Devil, less so in the US.< The cast featured Richard Burton, who had top billing. And Richard Harris.

Moore played the lead in Escape to Athena (1979) partly financed by Lew Grade. It was a heist adventure set in war-time Greece, and stars Telly Savalas and David Niven, and features mostly American character actors, including Elliott Gould, Stefanie Powers, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono, and Italian bombshell Claudia Cardinale. Roger Moore (with top billing) plays a charming former Austrian antiquities dealer turned crooked camp commandant, asked to guard Greek antiquities desired by the Third Reich, and also 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.

Moonraker (1979)


More successful was his fourth outing as Bond, Moonraker (1979). He followed it with an action film North Sea Hijack (1980) where Moore played a very un-Bond-like hero, opposite Anthony Perkins. The film was a box office disappointment.

Better received was The Sea Wolves (1980), another World War Two adventure which reunited many of the crew from The Wild Geese including Euan Lloyd and McLaglen. It was based on the true story of a March 1943 event in British India and Portuguese Goa, in which a group of retired members of the Calcutta Light Horse, coloneled by David Niven's character, assist regular British Army operatives, played by Moore and Gregory Peck, in destroying German ships in neutral Mormugao harbor, all the time surrounded by German spies and Indian nationalist intrigue. Trevor Howard, Patrick Macnee, and Barbara Kellerman also co-star, with a who's who lineup of British character actors.

Moore was in two all-star comedies: 'Sunday Lovers' (1980) which flopped at the box office and The Cannonball Run (1981) which was a hit. In the latter he spoofs his fame by playing a millionaire so obsessed with Roger Moore that he had had plastic surgery to look like him. It featured an ensemble cast, including Jackie Chan, Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Dom DeLuise, Sammy Davis Jr, and Farrah Fawcett.

For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Octopussy (1983)
Moore returned to Bond for For Your Eyes Only (1981). Following this film he expressed a desire to leave the role, and other actors - notably James Brolin were tested but Moore was eventually enticed back for Octopussy (1983).

He made a cameo as Chief Inspector Clouseau, posing as a famous movie star, in Curse of the Pink Panther ] (1983) (for which he was credited as "Turk Thrust II"). Then he tried a thriller The Naked Face (1984), written and directed by Bryan Forbes.

A View to a Kill (1985)
Moore made one last Bond, A View to a Kill (1985). Moore was the longest-serving James Bond actor, having spent 12 years in the role (from his debut in 1973, to his retirement from the role in 1985), having made seven of the Eon Production Bond films in a row. Moore was the oldest actor to have played Bond – he was 45 in Live and Let Die, and 58 when he announced his retirement on 3 December 1985. Moore is also tied with Sean Connery as the actor who played Bond in the most movies. They both appeared in seven.

Moore's Bond was very different from the version created by Ian Fleming. Screenwriters such as George MacDonald Fraser provided scenarios in which Moore was cast as a seasoned, debonair playboy who would always have a trick or gadget in stock when he needed it. This was designed to serve the contemporary taste of the 1970s. Moore's version of Bond was also known for his sense of humour and witty one liners, Moore himself said, "My personality is different from previous Bonds. I’m not that cold-blooded killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs."

In 1987, he hosted Happy Anniversary 007: 25 Years of James Bond.

Post-James Bond career (1986–2017)


Moore did not act on screen for five years after he stopped playing Bond; in 1990, he appeared in several films and in the writer-director Michael Feeney Callan's television series My Riviera and starred in the film Bed & Breakfast which was shot in 1989; and also had a large role in the 1996 film The Quest; in 1997, he starred as the Chief in Spice World. At the age of 73, he played a flamboyant homosexual man in Boat Trip (2002) with Cuba Gooding Jr.

The British comedy show Spitting Image once had a sketch in which their latex likeness of Moore, when asked to display emotions by an offscreen director, did nothing but raise an eyebrow; Moore himself stated that he thought the sketch was funny and took it in good humour. Indeed, he had always embraced the "eyebrows" gag wholeheartedly, slyly claiming that he "only had three expressions as Bond: right eyebrow raised, left eyebrow raised, and eyebrows crossed when grabbed by Jaws". Spitting Image continued the joke, featuring a Bond film spoof, The Man with the Wooden Delivery, with Moore's puppet receiving orders from Margaret Thatcher to kill Mikhail Gorbachev. Other comedy shows at that time ridiculed Moore's acting, with Rory Bremner once claiming to have had a death threat from one of his irate fans following one such routine.

In 2009, Moore appeared in an advertisement for the Post Office, he also played the role of a secret agent in the Victoria Wood Christmas Special on BBC1 show over the festive period in the same year. Filming all his scenes in the London Eye, his mission was to eliminate another agent whose file photo looks like Pierce Brosnan. In 2010, Moore provided the voice of a talking cat called Lazenby in the film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore which contained several references to, and parodies of, Bond films. In 2011, Moore co-starred in the film A Princess for Christmas with Katie McGrath and Sam Heughan, and in 2012, he took to the stage for a series of seven 'Evenings with' in UK theatres and, in November, guest-hosted Have I Got News for You. Moore's last on-screen performance was in 2013, a brief cameo as himself in Incompatibles, the first feature-length film of the then 21-year-old French director Paolo Cedolin Petrini.

In 2015, Moore was named one of GQ's 50 best-dressed British men. In October 2015, Moore read Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Claus and Big Claus" for the children's fairy tales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF, together with a number of other British celebrities, including Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor, Joan Collins, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, David Walliams, Charlotte Rampling, and Paul McKenna.

Humanitarian work
Moore's friend Audrey Hepburn had impressed him with her work for UNICEF, and consequently he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991. He was the voice of Father Christmas or 'Santa' in the 2004 UNICEF cartoon The Fly Who Loved Me.

Moore was involved in the production of a video for PETA that protests against the production and wholesale of foie gras. Moore narrates the video. His assistance in this situation, and being a strong spokesman against foie gras, led to the department store Selfridges agreeing to remove foie gras from their shelves.

Doorn Van Steyn
In 1946, aged 18, Moore married a fellow RADA student, the actress and ice skater Doorn Van Steyn (born Lucy Woodard), who was six years his senior; Moore and Van Steyn lived in Streatham with her family, but tension over money matters and her lack of confidence in his acting ability took their toll on the relationship, during which he allegedly suffered domestic abuse.

Dorothy Squires
In 1952, Moore met the Welsh singer Dorothy Squires, who was 12 years his senior, and Van Steyn and Moore divorced the following year. Squires and Moore were married in New York. They lived in Bexley, Kent, after their marriage.

They moved to the United States in 1954 to develop their careers, but tensions developed in their marriage due to their age differences and Moore's infatuation with starlet Dorothy Provine, and they moved back to the United Kingdom in 1961. Squires suffered a series of miscarriages during their marriage, and Moore later said the outcome of their marriage might have been different if they had been able to have children.

In their tempestuous relationship, Squires smashed a guitar over his head, and after learning of his affair with the Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, who became Moore's third wife, Moore said, "She threw a brick through my window. She reached through the glass and grabbed my shirt and she cut her arms doing it...The police came and they said, 'Madam, you're bleeding' and she said, 'It's my heart that's bleeding'." Squires intercepted letters from Mattioli to Moore and planned to include them in her autobiography, but the couple won injunctions against the publication in 1977, which led Squires to unsuccessfully sue them for loss of earnings. The numerous legal cases launched by Squires led her to be declared a vexatious litigant in 1987. Moore paid Squires's hospital bills after her cancer treatment in 1996, and upon her death in 1998.

Luisa Mattioli
In 1961, while filming The Rape of the Sabine Women in Italy, Moore left Squires for the Italian actress Luisa Mattioli. Squires refused to accept their separation, and sued Moore for loss of conjugal rights, but Moore refused the court's order to return to Squires in 28 days. Squires also smashed windows at a house in France where Moore and Mattioli were living, and unsuccessfully sued actor Kenneth More for libel, as More had introduced Moore and Mattioli at a charity event as "Mr Roger Moore and his wife". Moore and Mattioli lived together until 1969, when Squires finally granted him a divorce, after they had been separated for seven years. At Moore and Mattioli's marriage in April 1969 at the Caxton Hall in Westminster, London, a crowd of 600 people was outside, with women screaming his name.

Moore had three children with Mattioli: actress-daughter Deborah (born 1963) and two sons, Geoffrey and Christian. Geoffrey is also an actor, and appeared alongside his father in the 1976 film Sherlock Holmes in New York. In later life, he co-founded Hush Restaurant in Mayfair, London, with Jamie Barber. Geoffrey and his wife Loulou have two daughters. Moore's younger son, Christian, is a film producer.

Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup
Moore and Mattioli separated in 1993 after Moore developed feelings for a Swedish-born Danish socialite, Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup. 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 Moore, Nothing Lasts Forever, describing how she felt betrayed by Tholstrup and discarded by Moore.

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". Moore's children refused to speak to him for a period after the divorce, but they were later reconciled with their father. Mattioli refused to grant Moore a divorce until 2000, when a £10 million settlement was agreed. Moore subsequently married Tholstrup in 2002. Moore would later say that he loved Tholstrup as she was "organised", "serene", "loving", and "calm", saying, "I have a difficult life. I rely on Kristina totally. When we are travelling for my job, she is the one who packs. Kristina takes care of all that". Moore also said that his marriage to Tholstrop was "a tranquil relationship, there are no arguments". Tholstrup had a daughter, Christina Knudsen, from a previous relationship; Knudsen described her stepfather as a positive influence, saying, "I was in difficult relationships but that all changed" when her mother met Moore. Christina Knudsen died from cancer on 25 July 2016, at the age of 47; Moore posted on Twitter, "We are heartbroken" and "We were all with her, surrounding her with love, at the end".

Political alignment
On politics, Moore stated he was a Conservative and thought that Conservatism is the way to run a country. The BBC listed Moore prior to the 2001 UK general election as a celebrity backer of the British Conservative Party. In 2011, Moore gave his support to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron regarding his policy on the European Union, stating: I think he's doing absolutely wonderfully well, despite the opposition from many members of his own party. Traitors, I call them. I mean any hardliner within the Conservative Party who speaks out against their leader. You should support your leader.

Despite his Conservative politics, Moore retained membership of the Entertainment and Media trade union BECTU until his death, having joined as an apprentice animation technician before his acting career took off. At his death, he was the union's longest-serving member

Tax exile
Moore became a tax exile from the United Kingdom in 1978, originally to Switzerland, and divided his year between his three homes: an apartment in Monte Carlo, Monaco; a chalet in Crans-Montana, Switzerland; and a home in the south of France. 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. Moore was scathing of the Russian population in Monaco, saying, "I'm afraid we're overstuffed with Russians. All the restaurant menus are in Russian now."

Moore was vocal in his defence of his tax exile status, saying that in the 1970s, he had been urged by his "accountants, agents, and lawyers" that moving abroad was essential because "you would never be able to save enough to ensure that you had any sort of livelihood if you didn't work" as a result of the punitive taxation rates imposed on unearned income. Moore said in 2011 that his decision to live abroad was "not about tax. That's a serious part of it. I come back to England often enough not to miss it, to see the changes, to find some of the changes good...I paid my taxes at the time that I was earning a decent income, so I've paid my due".

Health
Moore had a series of childhood diseases, including chickenpox, measles, mumps, double pneumonia and jaundice. He had an infection of his foreskin at the age of eight and underwent a circumcision, and had his appendix, tonsils, and adenoids removed.

Moore was a long-term sufferer of kidney stones and needed to be hospitalised during the making of Live and Let Die in 1973 and again while filming the 1979 film Moonraker.

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

In 2003, Moore collapsed on stage while appearing on Broadway, and was fitted with a pacemaker to treat a potentially deadly slow heartbeat. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2013.

Death
Moore's family announced his death in Switzerland, on 23 May 2017 from cancer that had spread to his liver and lungs after a brief battle. He died in his home in Crans-Montana, in the presence of his family.

Royal circles
Moore had friendships with some of Denmark's royal family; Prince Joachim and his then-wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg invited Moore and his wife Kiki to attend the christening of their youngest son, Prince Felix. On 24 May 2008, Moore and his wife attended the wedding of Prince Joachim to his French fiancée Marie Cavallier.

Moore also had a long-standing friendship with Princess Lilian of Sweden, whom he first met on a visit to Stockholm for UNICEF. Moore's wife Kristina, who was born in Sweden, was already a friend of Princess Lilian's through mutual friends. In his autobiography, Moore recalled meeting the princess for tea and dinners whenever his wife and he visited Stockholm. He spoke of his recollections at the princess' memorial service at the English Church in Stockholm, on 8 September 2013.

On 1 and 2 July 2011, Moore and his wife attended the wedding of Prince Albert of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock.

Honours and awards
On 9 March 1999, Moore was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and promoted to Knight Commander of the same Order (KBE) on 14 June 2003. The citation on the knighthood was for Moore's charity work, which dominated his public life for more than a decade. Moore said that the citation "meant far more to me than if I had got it for acting... I was proud because I received it on behalf of UNICEF as a whole and for all it has achieved over the years".

On 11 October 2007, three days before he turned 80, Moore was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work on television and in film. Attending the ceremony were family, friends, and Richard Kiel, with whom he had acted in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Moore's star was the 2,350th star installed, and is appropriately located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard.

On 28 October 2008, the French government appointed Moore a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. On 21 November 2012, Moore was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire for his outstanding contributions to the UK film and television industry for over 50 years, in particular film and television productions in Hertfordshire.

For his charity work Lifetime achievements awards For his acting
 * 2007: Dag Hammarskjöld Inspiration Award (UNICEF)
 * 2004: UNICEF's Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award
 * 2003: German Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) for his UNICEF work
 * 2003: Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)
 * 1999: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
 * 2008: Commander of the French National Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre national des Arts et des Lettres)
 * 2007: Hollywood Walk of Fame
 * 2004: TELEKAMERA ("Tele Tydzień" Lifetime Achievement Award, Poland)
 * 2002: Monte Carlo TV Festival (Lifetime Achievement Award)
 * 2001: Lifetime achievement award (Filmfestival, Jamaica)
 * 1997: Palm Springs film festival, USA, Lifetime Achievement Award
 * 1995: TELE GATTO (Italian TV; Lifetime Achievement Award)
 * 1991: GOLDEN CAMERA (German TV; lifetime achievement award)
 * 1990: BAMBI (Lifetime Achievement Award from the German magazine BUNTE)
 * 1981: OTTO (Most popular Film Star; from German Magazine BRAVO)
 * 1980: Golden Globe Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite – Male.
 * 1980: Saturn Award (Most Popular International Performer)
 * 1973: BAMBI (shared with Tony Curtis for "The Persuaders", from the German magazine BUNTE)
 * 1973: BEST ACTOR IN TV, award from the French magazine TELE-7-JOURS, shared with Tony Curtis for "The Persuaders"
 * 1967: ONDAS-AWARD (Spanish TV for "The Saint")
 * 1967: OTTO (Most popular TV-star for "The Saint"; from German magazine BRAVO)

Publications
Moore's book about the filming of Live and Let Die, based on his diaries, titled Roger Moore as James Bond: Roger Moore's Own Account of Filming Live and Let Die, was published in London in 1973, by Pan Books. The book includes an acknowledgment to Sean Connery, with whom Moore was friends for many years: "I would also like to thank Sean Connery – with whom it would not have been possible."

Moore's autobiography My Word is My Bond (ISBN 0061673889) was published by Collins in the US, in November 2008 and by Michael O'Mara Books Ltd in the UK, on 2 October 2008 (ISBN 9781843173182).

On 16 October 2012, Bond on Bond was published to tie in with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films. The book, with many pictures, is based on Moore's own memories, thoughts, and anecdotes about all things 007, with some of the profits of the book going to UNICEF.