The Sunday Times November 05, 2006


Special agent, tender touch
Deirdre Fernand meets Sir Roger Moore


Sir Roger Moore does not speak so much as purr and growl. "Let me read
to you," he says softly. I draw my chair closer. He leafs through the
poems of WH Auden and TS Eliot, Larkin and Plath, to alight upon the
work of Rudyard Kipling. His sonorous, sexy baritone fills the room.
The voice, so familiar to millions around the world as that of James
Bond, is part tame tabby, part untamed tiger.
That's how it sounds to me at any rate, but his loyal fans might liken
it to the quiet revving of an Aston Martin, the sports car forever
associated with agent 007. He loves all Kipling's verse, particularly
Tommy and Danny Deever, his poems about the common soldier. "It goes
boom, boom, boom," he says, punching out the rhythm in the air. Yes,
Sir Roger, a bit like my beating heart.



Nature has been kind to Moore, knighted three years ago for his
services to charity. It made this policeman's son from south London
straight of back and square of shoulder. During his National Service,
he was picked out as officer material because he looked like a leading
man. His matinee-idol looks led to an extraordinarily successful
career spanning 60 years, an estimated personal fortune of some £20m
and sacks of fan mail from swooning women.

Along with his good friend Sir Michael Caine, he is one of the most
recognised British actors of his generation. Commander James Bond, the
1950s creation of Ian Fleming, is perhaps the greatest British
fictional icon of the late 20th century, and it helped make Moore an
icon, too. But, ever self-deprecating, he claims to have just got
"lucky" early on. Of his talents, he once said: "My acting range? Left
eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised."

The actor, who will be 80 next year, was making one of his rare visits
to London last week from his home in Monaco to read more of his
beloved Kipling in front of an audience at the British Library. He
even more rarely gives interviews, but, along with other actors
including Ralph Fiennes, Edward Fox and Juliet Stevenson, he has taken
part in a series of recitals to popularise some of our finest poets.
These feature in a new anthology and CD, called Catching Life by the
Throat (published by Virago), which will be distributed to every
secondary school in the country.

And nothing could be more pleasing to Moore, who learnt reams of
Tennyson and Shakespeare by heart at grammar school. As an ambassador
for the children's charity Unicef the subject of education is close to
his heart. "I'm not sure that the classics are taught so much any
more," he says. Nearly 70 years after he last sat in a classroom to
learn by rote the likes of The Charge of the Light Brigade and The
Lady of Shalott, he is still word perfect: "I remember so well the
first poems I learnt at school. They are engraved in my memory."

It is sheer chance that his trip coincides with the latest Bond film,
Casino Royale, which opens later this month starring Daniel Craig. The
choice of the gritty Craig, more public house than public school, in
contrast to the dashing and elegant figure that Moore cut, has sparked
much controversy among diehard Bond fans. Moore has not yet seen the
film, but thinks the new 007 has been much maligned.

"I am a great defender of Daniel Craig," he says. "He's a good actor.
People have been so beastly, he's not even had a chance." He adds with
a knowing smile: "Not that you have to be a good actor . . . you just
have to be able to say, 'My name's Bond, James Bond'."

Moore made seven spy films in all, retiring after A View to a Kill in
1985 at the age of 58. Somehow James Bond OAP just didn't have the
same ring as 007. He said at the time that he could not bear to be
such a superannuated secret agent, adding that he felt too
"embarrassed" to be playing love scenes opposite women young enough to
be his daughter.

He clearly enjoyed his on-screen antics with Bond babes such as Britt
Ekland, Barbara Bach, Carole Bouquet and Jane Seymour, though, and
remains fiercely loyal to the Bond brand. He does not see the genre as
escapist or outdated, but as embedded in our psyche. "Bond is rather
like a children's fairy tale, a bedtime story," he says. "It's become
an old friend and families have grown up with it. People know what
they are going to get: glamour, good action and gadgets."

His relationship with his alter ego is perhaps bittersweet: he knows
he can never break free of the role, but he has never let it define
him absolutely. "The other thing that happens when a new Bond film
opens is that I get bad reviews," he says. "The critics say, 'Thank
God, he — whoever it is — wasn't like Roger Moore'." In person he
appears to be the very antithesis of Bond, not so much hard nut as
soft centre. Talk of his charity work can bring tears to his eyes.
Reflective and reserved, he likes to read non-fiction, particularly
autobiography: "I certainly don't read thrillers."

He admits to being a hypochondriac, and, by way of a throwaway line,
adds The Merck Manual, a medical textbook, to his bedtime reading
list. In the early 1990s he was successfully treated for prostate
cancer; more recently he had a pacemaker fitted. A knee injury has
stopped him going to the gym but he walks and swims as much as he can.

Yet old age brings its tribulations, a constant source of amusement.
Last week he also unveiled a plaque at Elstree studios, in
Hertfordshire, to commemorate the years he spent there as Simon
Templar, filming The Saint. "I thought you had to be dead to get a
plaque," he says. "Let's hope it's high enough on the wall so that
dogs won't show their disrespect for me."

Of course Moore doesn't need to unveil plaques or give poetry
readings. With his millions in the bank, he could have retired
quietly, or at least sat back a bit. After all, he has enough children
(three) and former wives (three) to ponder. He once turned down the
chance to appear on This Is Your Life, saying: "I couldn't bear to
think of all those cross ex-wives." After a bruising divorce from his
third wife, Luisa, he now shares his comfortable homes in Monaco and
Switzerland, with his fourth, Christina Tholstrup.

For the past 13 years he has worked as a goodwill ambassador for
Unicef, notching up thousands of care-miles as he flies around the
world. The work has taken him to Vietnam, Cambodia, China and most
recently, India. And, as has often been remarked, this do-gooding role
is particularly fitting for our hero. The evils he fights today are
poverty, famine and disease. He took over the job from his old friend
Audrey Hepburn, whom he had met in his days as a male model. The
actress, who died in 1993, urged him to put his celebrity to good use.
"She was so passionate about children and their rights that she hooked
me. I now know she set out to recruit me."

Moore evidently has the same passion. Three years ago, after he
collapsed on stage in New York with heart problems, he was admitted to
hospital for a pacemaker to be fitted. Before the operation, he told
his cardiologist all about his efforts in the Third World. On the day
he was due to leave hospital, the doctor presented him with a £10,000
cheque, so moved was he by Moore's eloquence. "I was so surprised," he
says. "Most doctors want you to write them a cheque. Then he told me
that he was sorry he was not a Beverly Hills doctor because the figure
would have been 10 times more."

On a recent trip to Zambia with his wife he toured a school. It was 5
o'clock in the afternoon and the couple asked one of the girls in the
class when she had last eaten. "I had breakfast yesterday," she
replied. Imagine, he says: "How can a child learn with a stomach that
is rumbling?" Moore's contract with Unicef earns him a token dollar a
year and he is as modest about his charity work as his acting ability:
"I don't do it consciously to give something back. I do it because I
have the time to do it and I can."

Contact Music published a small article with similar info as above on Roger's admiration for the author Rudyard Kipling. (See below...)

Wonder what other idols RM has or has admired over the years?

From: Contact Music

MOORE ADMIRES POET KIPLING'S WAYS
SIR ROGER MOORE has revealed a softer side, he's a huge fan of British poet RUDYARD KIPLING. The former JAMES BOND star revealed his admiration for the acclaimed writer at a literary event at the British Library in London last week (ends5NOV06), where he read 11 of Kipling's poems to an audience. He says, "I have always loved Kipling mainly because I can understand him. "I also admire him because of the way he turned down most of the honours offered to him - even a knighthood. I was very happy to accept mine."

The comment he made about the new Bond is also interesting, but not surprising. I posted (on "Bond movies continue" thread in the Bond forum) a snippet from yet another paper making a stress on what RM said about not needing talent to play Bond. Again, not surprising that critics grabbed onto his words about this, lol.  :smt003

Sunny said

Quote:

"Wonder what other idols RM has or has admired over the years?"

Before Roger began working in movies, his big idols were Deborah Kerr and Stewart Grainger. It was such a thrill for him, when he worked as an extra in one of Miss Kerr's  movies "Perfect Strangers" also known as "Vacation From Marriage, and got to sit near here for a while until the scenes were filmed.

It was also very exciting for Roger to star in "The Wild Geese" with  Stewart Grainger. Unfortunately they didn't have any scenes together, but did meet on set, and were photographed together with Richard Burton.

Sir Roger is a fascinating figure who goes beyond mere celebrity with his active UNICEF post.  A truly legendary man-of-the-world, we would all do well to emulate his sensitivity, compassion and elegance. And his dapper wardrobe from the Saint series is haute couture par excellence!!

Hi SimonTemplarEsq,

A big welcome to Simply Moore!