British actor Roger Moore, best known for his role as James Bond in films such as "Live and Let Die" and "The Spy Who Loved Me", passed away on Tuesday in Switzerland after a brief battle with cancer. He was 89.
"With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated," his family said in a statement posted on Moore's official Twitter account.
"The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified in words alone."
Moore was the only actor who portrayed the popular fictional spy in seven movies between 1973 and 1985.
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Moore's Bond movies
Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Moonraker (1979)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983)
A View to a Kill (1985)
According to Hindustan Times, Moore, the son of a London policeman, once said the upper-crust image he portrayed both on and off the screen was a carefully nurtured cover for his shyness and timidity. He also said he was terrified of playing the sex scenes which were a key part of the Bond movies.
Moore’s big breakthrough as an actor came in 1962, when he won the part of The Saint in a popular television series of the same name. In this role, he honed his image of the urbane Englishman with a stream of damsels to rescue from distress. In 1973 came the coveted part of James Bond, writer Ian Fleming’s action man spy 007, who held cinemagoers across the world in thrall. The Bond films were said to have earned Moore 14 million pounds ($22 million).
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(With agency inputs)
