Posted on 05/28/2017 7:40:46 AM PDT by Rummyfan
Roger Moore played 007 in seven Bond films - although it seemed like more at the time. He was a rare Englishman in a role more often played by Celts and colonials - Connery (Scots), Lazenby (Aussie), Dalton (Welsh), Brosnan (Irish)... Any Canadians? Yes. Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell). For some Ian Fleming fans, Moore was a little too English for a role that benefits from a certain chippiness toward his metropolitan masters. Yet he bestrode the era like a colossus whose legs wee almost as unfeasibly long as they are on the Octopussy poster and whose trouser flares were almost as terrifyingly wide as on the Man With The Golden Gun poster.
Before he was the big-screen 007, he essayed the role on telly - for a comedy sketch in 1964 on the great Millie Martin's BBC show Mainly Millicent. So he came to Bond by playing him for laughs, and never stopped doing so - the most genial of men dispatching hundreds of Bacofoil-suited extras in hollowed-out mountain lairs while looking for the laser-countdown button with the big red OFF switch. Sir Roger always denied that he'd been originally offered the part, before Sean Connery, for Doctor No. But it is true that Connery was originally offered the role of Simon Templar in the show that made Moore a global star: The Saint. If you belong to a very precise sub-sliver of British Commonwealth boomers with access to black-and-white teatime telly, you'll cherish him from his first hit TV show, for children, in 1958. Ivanhoe was based on the once massively popular novel by Sir Walter Scott (who has plummeted spectacularly out of favor in the six decades since).
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
There is little dispute that Sean Connery and Roger Moore were the most definitive Agent 007s. That’s whey they did most of them.
I remember seeing episodes of Ivanhoe on Chicago television sometime in the early 60’s. That introduced me to Roger Moore. Never saw The Saint until the local PBS picked up some episodes to go along with the regular running of The Prisoner and The Avengers.
Moore made more of a mockery of 007. Connery was far the best and the intended type of script actor that Fleming wrote about. It was never a joking matter as Moore’s directors made it out to be.
Approaching the end of his second term and asked whether he'd be returning to acting, the President responded that he'd quite like to play Bond but worried that he was too young for the part.
Good one.
Amazing!
Came here to say almost exactly that. I like Roger Moore, but not as 007.
How old was he when he last played Bond? I think ‘A View to A Kill’ was his last, wasn’t it? I remember Patrick MacNee playing his valet in that one. Both had to be in their 60’s, at least.
Shouldn’t that be “Rogerer”?
In all fairness, Moore played the roll as it was joked up by the writers and producer, they took Bond from a few witty and or bad puns to a full blown clown and Moore played it superbly and to the hilt. I never cared for the constant comedy in the era after Connery, but it's not fair to blame Moore for the writing and vision of the producer.
While I liked Connery in anything he has ever done and I do a funny impersonation of him, I always liked Moore as a more handsome and suave 007.
The Spy Who Loved Me saw Moore paired with Barbara Bach.
Their pairing for the movie was genius. He an extraordinarily handsome man and suave in nature, she classically beautiful and refined but, had California girl looks.
My father had those Roger Moore looks and the same casual but knowing saunter when walking into a room and I mirrored them.
The humor in any situation is why I liked Moore.
The only thing be didn’t do was give face to the camera, which would have been hilarious in the right moment.
*ping*
Nice read on Roger Moore.
I have to agree. In some of the movies, Roger Moore was to James Bind as Adam West was to Batman. There was an unnecessary comedy shtick to it that took me out of being immersed with the character. Connery had his moments but it seemed much more natural for the character. I liked Moore and he did a good job, but the tacky jokes were difficult to digest at best.
Please reread my post. I did not blame Moore.
Didn’t mean to imply you did, I wrote that with all the attacks of him for his portrayal of Bond, your post was just the venue, not the impetus, I guess maybe even I used to look down on his Bond movies and was just taking a moment to separate Moore who portrayed Bond to the hilt as written at the time, from the crappy story lines and writing. : )
Quite. Moore played the joke straight. Wasn’t his fault the series slid off the rails, but he was complicit.
Mark Steyn writes better obits (or tributes) than anyone at any of the big newspapers.
He very well was complicit, but put yourself in his place, all the celebrity and a ton of money allowing you to give yourself and family all the best, what you you have done?
Mark Steyn at his best! Personally, I prefer Daniel Craig to Pierce Brosnan, maybe even to Moore. By the time of Octupussy the flicks had reached self-parody, maybe that is why there was no contemporaneous Derek Flint or Matt Helm.
Will definitely check out No Time to Die....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.