Sir Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has passed away at the age of 89. The news was shared by Moore’s family, who says the actor passed away after a battle with cancer.

The actor is one of the handful to portray Bond since the film series began in 1962, joined by Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and the most recent, Daniel Craig. Moore played Bond seven times from 1973 to 1985 in Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill. Only Connery has appeared in the role as many times, and no one has played Bond more than that.

Moore’s children released this statement about their father’s passing on Moore’s Twitter account:

It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our loving father, Sir Roger Moore, has passed away today in Switzerland after a short but brave battle with cancer. The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified in words alone.

We know our own love and admiration will be magnified many times over, across the world, by the people who knew him for his films, his television shows and his passionate work for UNICEF which he considered to be his greatest achievement.

The affection our father felt whenever he walked on to a stage or in front of a camera buoyed him hugely and kept him busy working into his 90th year, through to his last appearance in November 2016 on stage at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The capacity crowd cheered him on and off the stage, shaking the very foundations of the building just a short distance from where he was born.

Thank you Pops for being you, and for being so very special to so many people.

Our thoughts must now turn to supporting Kristina at this difficult time, and in accordance with our father’s wishes there will be a private funeral in Monaco.

Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian

About a decade before becoming Bond officially, Moore actually played the character in a sketch on the TV series Mainly Millicent. You can find a clip of this below.

Also before Bond, the actor played the character Simon Templar/The Saint in the movies The Fiction-Makers and Vendetta for the Saint, before reprising his role as the character in 118 episodes of the TV series The Saint from 1962 to 1969. He would later cameo as “Car Radio Announcer” in 1997’s The Saint, which starred Val Kilmer as Templar, and had a role in a TV series remake that was in the works a few years ago with Adam Rayner as Templar and Eliza Dushku but has yet to be released. He also appeared in episodes of Ivanhoe, The Alaskans, Maverick, and The Persuaders!, as well as the movie The Man Who Haunted Himself.

During and after his time as Bond, Moore appeared in titles such as Shout at the Devil, The Wild Geese, ffolkes, The Sea Wolves, The Cannonball Run, The Quest, and an episode of Alias among others.

Sir Roger Moore
1927 — 2017

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