Roger no Moore

[Sean of the Shed]

Roger Moore has died.

[ad hoc]

Roger no Moore

Raises eyebrow in respectful tribute/mourning

[Snake Plissken]

Roger no Moore

Well, ain't today turning out to be a barrel of laughs.

Away from Bond - which was the best thing ever when I was growing up - he always came across as a complete gentleman who was prepared to laugh at himself and appreciated the good fortune his life had led. #RIP Sir Roger.

[Sean of the Shed]

Roger no Moore

Apparently one of the last things he did before his death was telling Theresa May to sling her hook.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Roger no Moore

That's excellent, SOTS.

RIP Roger

[elguapo4]

Roger no Moore

First of the Bonds to die (if you don't include David Niven ) when you consider the films started in 1962 they're as indestructible as the character they played

[Hot Pepsi]

Roger no Moore

He was the first Bond I saw on VHS (Live and Let Die, IIRC) and the first I saw in the theater (View to a Kill) and the only one I've seen with my own eyes (we happened to be in London when the premier of VTAK was happening and saw the stars and Prince and Princess of Wales go by).

Like with most enduring characters, we got the version of Bond that was appropriate for the times. For example, Daniel Craig is defintely the man for our recent era of paranoia and doubt, but Moore was ideal for the 70s and 80s, as he really understood the camp potential of the series, without ever overcooking it.

I think I like him more than Connery, to be honest. The Connery films were better overall, perhaps, but Moore came off as less of a prick than Connery, both as Bond and in real life.

[Lang Spoon]

Roger no Moore

Yeah he's coming off as mensch and a decent skin in loads of little stories and anecdotes today. Tbh, I don't think it will be the same for Sean Connery. The type of bastard who gets called "irascible" in publications that don't print swears. Wooden scowling wife beater. (The Man Who Would Be King, The Hill, and maybes a small dose of his Bond being all I can really stand him in).

As an aside, are those three Tory MPs (that have blocked any forbidding the scum of Chipperfields etc using live animals) in the pockets of Big Circus, or just contrary bastards? And why does anyone listen to them?

[Gawpus]

Roger no Moore

Nevermind

[Sam]

Roger no Moore

Saw the following going round Facebook, and absolutely loved it.

As an seven year old in about 1983, in the days before First Class Lounges at airports, I was with my grandad in Nice Airport and saw Roger Moore sitting at the departure gate, reading a paper. I told my granddad I'd just seen James Bond and asked if we could go over so I could get his autograph. My grandad had no idea who James Bond or Roger Moore were, so we walked over and he popped me in front of Roger Moore, with the words "my grandson says you're famous. Can you sign this?"

As charming as you'd expect, Roger asks my name and duly signs the back of my plane ticket, a fulsome note full of best wishes. I'm ecstatic, but as we head back to our seats, I glance down at the signature. It's hard to decipher it but it definitely doesn't say 'James Bond'. My grandad looks at it, half figures out it says 'Roger Moore' - I have absolutely no idea who that is, and my hearts sinks. I tell my grandad he's signed it wrong, that he's put someone else's name - so my grandad heads back to Roger Moore, holding the ticket which he's only just signed.

I remember staying by our seats and my grandad saying "he says you've signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond." Roger Moore's face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to me, "I have to sign my name as 'Roger Moore' because otherwise...Blofeld might find out I was here." He asked me not to tell anyone that I'd just seen James Bond, and he thanked me for keeping his secret. I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My grandad asked me if he'd signed 'James Bond.' No, I said. I'd got it wrong. I was working with James Bond now.

Many, many years later, I was working as a scriptwriter on a recording that involved UNICEF, and Roger Moore was doing a piece to camera as an ambassador. He was completely lovely and while the cameramen were setting up, I told him in passing the story of when I met him in Nice Airport. He was happy to hear it, and he had a chuckle and said "Well, I don't remember but I'm glad you got to meet James Bond." So that was lovely.

And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car - but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, "Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn't say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld."

I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7. What a man. What a tremendous man.

[Sam]

Roger no Moore

Haha, crosspost. Sorry, Gawpus.

[Gawpus]

Roger no Moore

No problem, I was posting it via image and ballsed it right up anyway.

[Sits]

Roger no Moore

What a lovely story. A gent.

[Lang Spoon]

Roger no Moore

Sam wrote: Saw the following going round Facebook, and absolutely loved it.

As an seven year old in about 1983, in the days before First Class Lounges at airports, I was with my grandad in Nice Airport and saw Roger Moore sitting at the departure gate, reading a paper. I told my granddad I'd just seen James Bond and asked if we could go over so I could get his autograph. My grandad had no idea who James Bond or Roger Moore were, so we walked over and he popped me in front of Roger Moore, with the words "my grandson says you're famous. Can you sign this?"

As charming as you'd expect, Roger asks my name and duly signs the back of my plane ticket, a fulsome note full of best wishes. I'm ecstatic, but as we head back to our seats, I glance down at the signature. It's hard to decipher it but it definitely doesn't say 'James Bond'. My grandad looks at it, half figures out it says 'Roger Moore' - I have absolutely no idea who that is, and my hearts sinks. I tell my grandad he's signed it wrong, that he's put someone else's name - so my grandad heads back to Roger Moore, holding the ticket which he's only just signed.

I remember staying by our seats and my grandad saying "he says you've signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond." Roger Moore's face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to me, "I have to sign my name as 'Roger Moore' because otherwise...Blofeld might find out I was here." He asked me not to tell anyone that I'd just seen James Bond, and he thanked me for keeping his secret. I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My grandad asked me if he'd signed 'James Bond.' No, I said. I'd got it wrong. I was working with James Bond now.

Many, many years later, I was working as a scriptwriter on a recording that involved UNICEF, and Roger Moore was doing a piece to camera as an ambassador. He was completely lovely and while the cameramen were setting up, I told him in passing the story of when I met him in Nice Airport. He was happy to hear it, and he had a chuckle and said "Well, I don't remember but I'm glad you got to meet James Bond." So that was lovely.

And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car - but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, "Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn't say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld."

I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7. What a man. What a tremendous man.

Yeah that's the one especially that made me doff my cap to Moore. Would bring a tear to a glass eye that anecdote. A man who understands the power of movie magic, rather than enraged at the typecasting (in public anyways, which is all that counts - not acting the maggot).

[Moonlight Shadow]

Roger no Moore

He was a really popular figure in Switzerland, countless tributes in media over there. A good egg and a very kind man who did what he could with his fame to help others.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Roger no Moore

A friend of mine was working for Amnesty International in Dublin about 10 years ago, and she met him at a unicef do in Dublin. She said he was an utter Gentle man, as distinct from a gentleman, and sympathetic in a way that meant that that he seemed to derive a great deal of pleasure from other people's happiness, so essentially he enjoyed pleasing people, rather than needed to please people, which is a rare characteristic in the Show business world.

His bond films were shite, and he was way too old, but he had the decency to realise how ridiculous it all was and acted accordingly. But his bond movies featured a lot less violence towards women, and were a whole lot less rapey, which was a brave move in the seventies .

[Levin]

Roger no Moore

I'm a little sorry that Bond overshadows The Saint. I saw some a little while ago and they are perfectly charming.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Roger no Moore

I hated him as Bond, where he seemed creepy to the point of repellence, and I'm too young to remember him in The Saint, but RIP anyway. I'm glad to read he was a decent chap.

[Various Artist]

Roger no Moore

I absolutely love that story posted above. The bit in the airport would've been a beautiful bit of empathetic understanding of the power and magic of fictional heroes, all on its own – but to do that "in character" callback to it 23 years later, to give that person's inner 7-year-old the same thrill as they'd had as a kid, is just a knockout. What a little piece of utterly joyous genius. What a dude. Rest in peace, Sir Rog.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Roger no Moore

What VA said.