Roger Moore

Roger Moore was an English actor whose seven-film tenure as British secret agent James Bond — the longest single-actor run in the Bond franchise — made him one of the figures of late-20th-century international film. He was born Roger George Moore on October 14, 1927, in Stockwell, London, England. His father George Alfred Moore was a London police officer. He served briefly with the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II before pursuing acting through the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

His pre-Bond acting career included British TV roles through the 1950s and 1960s — most the title role in ITV's The Saint (1962–1969, the Leslie Charteris-derived British spy adventure series, which ran for six seasons across 118 episodes) and The Persuaders! (1971–1972, opposite Tony Curtis).

His Bond casting came in 1972 when he was selected to replace Sean Connery (who had retired from the role after the 1971 Diamonds Are Forever). His seven-film Bond run included 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), and the A View to a Kill (1985, his final Bond film at age 57). The Moore-era Bond films were lighter in tone than the Connery-era films, with substantial comedic elements that became the Moore-Bond signature.

Beyond the Bond franchise, his other film work included The Wild Geese (1978) and Cannonball Run (1981). He was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and devoted substantial time to UNICEF humanitarian work for the remaining 26 years of his life. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 — Sir Roger Moore. He died on May 23, 2017, at age 89, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

His name Roger is from the Old Germanic Hrodgar, composed of hrod (fame) and ger (spear) — yielding "famous spear." Roger has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names for over a century.