# Roger Moore dead at 89 years of age **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [May 23, 2017, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275 "2017-05-23T13:51:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/21 "2017-05-23T17:10:07Z")
Sad to see him go. He got stuck with the silliest of the Bond movies, but I always enjoyed him in them. I think _For Your Eyes Only_ was the least campy movie they handed him, but I also loved the end to _Man With the Golden Gun_. I have to say I much prefer his older work as Simon Templar. Maybe I’ll do a really long binge of Moore stuff. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/22 "2017-05-23T17:41:23Z")
Roger was the James Bond that I grew up with. He made the best of the role considering the weak scripts. I don’t know his other work. I always had a good time watching him as Bond. R.I.P. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/23 "2017-05-23T17:59:57Z")
He was my Bond I suppose, being the first I was old enough to go and see the films at the cinema. _For Your Eyes Only_ and _The Spy Who Loved Me_ still hold up as superior Bond films I think. But Sir Roger always seemed like a really decent chap too, his many years working for UNICEF testament to that, and also his self-deprecating style, with a twinkle in his eye, in interviews. Apologies for the twitter link, but it contains an excellent Roger Moore anecdote > ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/24 "2017-05-23T18:18:51Z")
His films were fun and he looked like he had fun making them. I enjoyed 'Live and Let Die" a great deal. RIP Roger Moore ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/25 "2017-05-23T18:56:39Z")
You know, very few people say Moore was their favorite James Bond. I wouldn’t either. And yet, I had fun watching ALL but one of Moore’s Bond flicks (\*\*\*The Man With the Golden Gun \*\*\*was terrible). No, Moore wasn’t the lethal assassin of Ian Fleming’s books, but so what? There are a lot of ways to play Bond, just as there are a lot of ways to play Batman. The campy Adam West approach to Batman is as valid as the Dark Knight approach, and at least as enjoyable. And Roger Moore’s wink-wink-nudge-nudge approach to Bond is as valid as the Connery/Craig approach. Moore made me laugh. Hard. A lot. So, he’ll always be okay in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/26 "2017-05-23T19:01:18Z")
I think I liked the Moore interpretation of Bond more than most. IMO Bond is inherently ridiculous and is best played with a light touch. The Craig films have their strengths but have become too solemn and dreary for my taste. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/27 "2017-05-23T19:20:50Z")
Unfortunately I read the books first, so he was not “Simon Templar” to me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/28 "2017-05-23T19:31:25Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > I think I liked the Moore interpretation of Bond more than most. IMO Bond is inherently ridiculous and is best played with a light touch. The Craig films have their strengths but have become too solemn and dreary for my taste. I loved Moore. Granted, I was a kid to teenager when I saw the Bond movies, but I loved his the best, probably because they did have that cartoon hero touch to them. Since I haven’t seen any of them again as an adult, I have no idea how much I would agree with my young self, but I assume tongue-in-cheek was is part of the Bond franchise, no? If not, the Moore all the way; I don’t have to rewatch them. ---
**Author:** ![mind\_the\_gap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@mind\_the\_gap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mind_the_gap)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/29 "2017-05-23T19:38:34Z")
I loved Moore in the Saint, he made driving a Volvo cool. He, along with David Niven, seemed to be the kind of Englishmen that would be a blast to hang with. Suave, debonair, witty, chick magnet 😉 and generous person. RIP Sir Roger… ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/30 "2017-05-23T19:53:49Z")
I recently rewatched all of the Bond movies in order. One thing that stood out to me was the Moore era movies had an excess number of ski chases, and I wondered if it was because Roger liked to ski. Like others have said, he was my first Bond so he will always be Bond to me. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/31 "2017-05-23T19:59:22Z")
Ivanhoe was one of the first TV series I watched as a young child. After each episode, I would take my toy sword and run through the streets singing IVANHOE! IVANHOE! RIP Sir Roger. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/32 "2017-05-23T20:03:00Z")
He was not my favorite Bond, but I enjoyed his movies. I liked him in a number of non-Bond movies: Shout at the Devil, The Wild Geese, Escape to Athena, ffoulkes, The Sea Wolves. I enjoyed when he parodied himself in [Cannonball Run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiTUKJrlYUA) and when he played Clouseau in [Curse of the Pink Panther](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3atzmKqmI_I) ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/33 "2017-05-23T20:08:12Z")
Dumb coincidence: I bought a bottle of Coke Zero to drink with my lunch today. For some reason Coke puts names on the bottles for the summer. I turned the bottle around while eating my lunch and the name on it was “Moore”. OooooooWEEEEEEEEEOoooooo ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/34 "2017-05-23T20:10:53Z")
> [@mind\_the\_gap](#): > > I loved Moore in the Saint, he made driving a Volvo cool. He, along with David Niven, seemed to be the kind of Englishmen that would be a blast to hang with. Suave, debonair, witty, chick magnet 😉 and generous person. RIP Sir Roger… Well that was the one cool Volvo ever made anyway 😉 OTOH he could not do the same for an AMC as Bond, he was only human. Especially in his later Bonds he had to carry a lot of really awful writing and did so with aplomb, mostly, which is a credit to him. He could do it quite well when things clicked together. From all I’ve read and heard a fine gentleman and performer. RIP, Roger, if you run into Desmond tell him you blew yourself up with one of his gadgets, it’ll make his day. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/35 "2017-05-23T20:24:54Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Sad to see him go. He got stuck with the silliest of the Bond movies, but I always enjoyed him in them. I think _For Your Eyes Only_ was the least campy movie they handed him, but I also loved the end to _Man With the Golden Gun_… If his interpretation of the Bond character might have been jarring compared to Connery’s, the stunt work, at least, in Moore’s Bond movies was always top-notch. Seemed they were always setting records of one kind or another in them, from the [world’s longest boat jump in _Live and Let Die_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upQ-MXF_ZgI), to the [360 car barrel roll jump in _The Man With the Golden Gun_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzCIbhLUUA0), to [base jumping off a 2000 foot cliff on Baffin Island.](https://youtu.be/qw77HagbeHM?t=2m11s) I liked watching Moore, pretty much no matter what he did. As mentioned earlier in the thread by someone, his acting reminded me of David Niven in a lot of ways. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/36 "2017-05-23T20:36:18Z")
RIP Sir Roger. You were always my best Bond. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/37 "2017-05-23T20:48:46Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I liked watching Moore, pretty much no matter what he did. As mentioned earlier in the thread by someone, his acting reminded me of David Niven in a lot of ways. When they began filming _Doctor No_, Ian Fleming thought Sean Connery was completely wrong for the role; he wanted either David Niven or Roger Moore. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/38 "2017-05-23T20:56:03Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > When they began filming _Doctor No_, Ian Fleming thought Sean Connery was completely wrong for the role; he wanted either David Niven or Roger Moore. What, not Cary Grant? ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/39 "2017-05-23T20:59:14Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > When they began filming _Doctor No_, Ian Fleming thought Sean Connery was completely wrong for the role; he wanted either David Niven or Roger Moore. Didn’t he eventually think that Timothy Dalton pegged it when _The Living Daylights_ came out? Thought I remember reading that somewhere. I think Connery, at least in the first two or three movies, captured the ‘blunt instrument’ nature of Bond better than anyone up to Craig. I can’t imagine what movie audiences must have thought when they first saw the, “[That’s a Smith and Wesson. And you’ve had your six](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btjBvrly2aI),” scene. _Especially_ the coup de grace shot. I mean, not taking the guy alive? Even worse, making sure the bad guy is dead? Mind blown. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275/40 "2017-05-23T21:02:43Z")
Nice story about Disco Bond from Facebook, no copyright: > [@](#): > > As an seven year old in about 1983, in the days before First Class Lounges at airports, I was with my grandad in Nice Airport and saw Roger Moore sitting at the departure gate, reading a paper. I told my granddad I’d just seen James Bond and asked if we could go over so I could get his autograph. My grandad had no idea who James Bond or Roger Moore were, so we walked over and he popped me in front of Roger Moore, with the words “my grandson says you’re famous. Can you sign this?” > > As charming as you’d expect, Roger asks my name and duly signs the back of my plane ticket, a fulsome note full of best wishes. I’m ecstatic, but as we head back to our seats, I glance down at the signature. It’s hard to decipher it but it definitely doesn’t say ‘James Bond’. My grandad looks at it, half figures out it says ‘Roger Moore’ - I have absolutely no idea who that is, and my hearts sinks. I tell my grandad he’s signed it wrong, that he’s put someone else’s name - so my grandad heads back to Roger Moore, holding the ticket which he’s only just signed. > > I remember staying by our seats and my grandad saying “he says you’ve signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond.” Roger Moore’s face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to me, “I have to sign my name as ‘Roger Moore’ because otherwise…Blofeld might find out I was here.” He asked me not to tell anyone that I’d just seen James Bond, and he thanked me for keeping his secret. I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My grandad asked me if he’d signed ‘James Bond.’ No, I said. I’d got it wrong. I was working with James Bond now. > > Many, many years later, I was working as a scriptwriter on a recording that involved UNICEF, and Roger Moore was doing a piece to camera as an ambassador. He was completely lovely and while the cameramen were setting up, I told him in passing the story of when I met him in Nice Airport. He was happy to hear it, and he had a chuckle and said “Well, I don’t remember but I’m glad you got to meet James Bond.” So that was lovely. > > And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car - but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, “Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn’t say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld.” > > I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7. What a man. What a tremendous man. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roger-moore-dead-at-89-years-of-age/787275.md?page=3)