I have a signed photo from him, a birthday gift to myself last year, and I shall have to hang it up and have a pint for him tonight.
During periods of my life I have bought numerous JB007 memorabilia, much of which I have now discarded (age, or more likely a result of the last two films ...) but still hanging on various walls are framed limited edition lithographs including several signed ones. The one for The Spy Who Loved Me (my least favourite JB007 film until Die Another Day) was purchased because it is signed by RM (pre his knighthood). I recall this one cost more than the others because a portion of the purchase price was being donated to UNICEF.
Sean Connery is the definitive James Bond, but Roger Moore is my second favorite Bond. I think his Bond reputation was hurt by following Connery and being in Bond movies with awful scripts (OCTOPUSSY, A VIEW TO A KILL, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, etc.). I'll watch MOONRAKER tonight since I watched THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN recently.
Roger Moore made his film debut in an uncredited role as a soldier in the 1945 MGM film VACATION FROM MARRIAGE. The comedy-drama was filmed in England. Alexander Korda directed, and the unreleased score was by Clifton Parker.
Moore played another uncredited soldier, this time of the Roman variety, in the 1945 filimization of George Bernard Shaw’s play CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA. Gabriel Pascal directed the lavish production.
The score for the film was originally composed by Sir Arthur Bliss. However, Pascal wanted a "French-sounding" score, so Bliss' music was replaced with a score composed by Georges Auric. Ten minutes of Auric’s score was recorded by Chandos for a 1999 Auric compilation CD.
Under contract to MGM, Roger Moore made his American film debut in the 1954 Elizabeth Taylor romantic drama THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS. Moore played “Paul Lane,” a suave international tennis bum, who is invited to a party by Taylor’s father, “James Ellswirth” (Walter Pidgeon), a charming rascal with a talent for living beyond his means. Richard Brooks directed the film, which had an unreleased score by Conrad Salinger.
Moore was third-billed, and received his first poster credit, in the 1955 biographical drama INTERRUPTED MELODY. The film chronicles Australian-born opera star Marjorie Lawrence's success, her battle with polio, and her eventual career comeback. Eleanor Parker played Lawrence, Glenn Ford played the doctor with whom she falls in love, and Moore played her brother and business manager “Cyril.” Curtis Bernhardt directed the film. Adolph Deutsch provided the score, but only opera and other source music appeared on the MGM LP that was released.
Just seen it couple of hours ago on our late news.
Though I never really was a Bond- Fan as a kid, me and my best friend were more Trappers, I appreciate him and like him as a person. I hardly remember, I was very little, when Simon Templar was on screen here in germany and I liked it very much. I was seven when he started with James Bond, up then he was often here as a guest star in german shows. Ever since a boy, I was fascinated by his charme and always enjoyed seeing him in shows. He was a true gentleman and always polite to everyone, with such a fine sense of humor and self- humor.
As a grown up man, I appreciate, what he did for UNICEF. I think, he will be hardly missed. I' m not often beeing " hit " by a star' s death, but for him, I' m feeling sad.
In THE KING’S THIEF, a tale of 17th century England, Moore played “Jack,” the companion of “Michael Dermott” (Edmund Purdom), the leader of a group of highwaymen who uncovers a plot to assassinate King Charles II. Hugo Fregonese was the film's original director, but production was halted after eleven days when Fregonese was stricken with a virus. Director Robert Z. Leonard, who had recently gone into retirement, was called back to take over. Fregonese did not return to the film when he recovered because of disagreements with producer Edwin H. Knopf. Miklos Rozsa’s score for the 1955 financial flop was released by Film Score Monthly in 2003.
Moore co-starred in the 16th century costume drama DIANE, about a noblewoman (Lana Turner) who has a love affair with the French king (Pedro Armendáriz). Moore played “Henri,” the king’s younger son. David Miller directed the 1956 film. The score by Miklos Rozsa was released by Film Score Monthly in 2004. Like THE KING’S THIEF, DIANE was a huge financial failure, and Roger Moore was released from his seven year contract with MGM after only two years.
Without a studio contract for the moment, Moore did guest shots on television for a period before landing the title role in the 1958 British television series “Ivanhoe”. Based on the character created by Sir Walter Scott, the series followed the adventures of Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, a noble knight and champion of justice during the rule of the evil Prince John.
Swashbuckling adventures for a younger audience, such as “The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “The Adventures of Sir Lancelot,” were a mainstay of ITV's programming in Britain in the mid-1950s. In December 1956, Columbia Pictures signed up Moore to play Ivanhoe in a series for transmission in both America and the UK. The series was a co-production between Columbia subsidiary Screen Gems and British producer Sydney Box.
The series premiered on ITV in January 1958, while filming continued to complete all 39 episodes through to June 1958. Although a pilot episode was filmed in color, the series was shot in black and white. Moore insisted on undertaking much of the stunt work himself, resulting in several injuries including three cracked ribs from a fight scene and being knocked unconscious when a battle-axe hit his helmeted skull. Moore later commented: "I felt a complete Charlie riding around in all that armor and damned stupid plumed helmet. I felt like a medieval fireman".
The series was syndicated in the U.S. It finished when Moore returned to Hollywood after Warner Bros. offered him a movie role in THE MIRACLE.
THE MIRACLE is set in Spain, during the Napoleonic era, where a young postulant (Carroll Baker) falls in love with a handsome British soldier (Roger Moore) who is recovering with others of his regiment after being wounded. The role of “Capt. Michael Stuart” was intended for Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde turned it down and suggested Roger Moore. Irving Rapper directed the film. Elmer Bernstein’s score was released by Intrada in 2013.
Now under contract to Warner Bros., Roger Moore was put into a new television series called “The Alaskans”. Moore was "Silky Harris" and Jeff York as "Reno McKee", a pair of adventurers intent on swindling travelers bound for the Yukon Territories during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. (As the end credits theme song went: “Got the fever, got the fever—gold fever!”) Their plans are inevitably complicated by the presence of singer "Rocky Shaw" (Dorothy Provine), an entertainer with a taste for the finer things in life.
Because of the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike as well as an ongoing Warner Bros. policy to save money on writers, “The Alaskans” inherited a certain amount of scripted material from “Maverick.” Moore bristled at the lack of originality in scripts: "An old 'Bronco' script would interchange with an 'Alaskans”' or 'Maverick.' In some cases, even the dialogue stayed unchanged." In 2007, Moore noted, "Quite often I realized that we were filming “Maverick” scripts, with the names changed." Perhaps, this made it simple for Jack L. Warner to envision Moore as Maverick, since Moore had literally delivered Garner's dialogue while reshooting the same scripts with different names and locales.
The one-hour series premiered on Sunday, 4 October 1959 at 9:30 PM. The show was opposite “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” on CBS, the 25th highest rated series for the season, and “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show” on NBC, which was in color. “The Alaskans” was not competitive and was cancelled after one season of 37 episodes.
For Roger Moore, the series is memorable for being "my most appalling television series ever." In particular, he found that attempting to recreate Alaskan exteriors on a studio backlot in California made for disagreeably hot work days. According to Moore, the fake snow used in production was initially made with gypsum and cornflakes. However, it later included six inch nails and lumps of wood. The crew were allow to wear protective masks, but the actors were not. Moore said that the cast members had to go to the studio nurse at least twice a day to get their eyes flushed out from the dirt and grit. The show also caused some marital strife for the actor when he had to admit to wife Dorothy Squires that he had fallen in love with co-star Dorothy Provine.
