An Evening with Sir Roger Moore at the Liverpool Empire: Life of a Legend
Roger Moore was my childhood hero. When I first discovered the James Bond films, he was the Bond I related to the most. He was a favourite onscreen hero for several generations of fans, and his memorable roles include Ivanhoe, Simon Templar and Lord Brett Sinclair. It is hard to think of another British star who was so loved by an army of fans and yet so frequently dismissed by critics. I remember reading a review for a film (that didn’t star Moore) a few years ago and the critic said ‘this film is so bad they might as well have put Roger Moore in it.’ When they’re blaming you for other people’s bad movies you know something went wrong with your critical reputation. But when I saw my boyhood hero stride onto the stage at the Liverpool Empire Theatre last night, still looking strong at 88, I couldn’t help thinking that no other living actor has taken such a leading role over so many stages of international film and television history. His first role was a walk-on part as a Roman soldier in Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945 where he saw his screen idol Stewart Granger playing Apollodorus deliver the line, ‘It is purple on the green below’. From that point on he was hooked. As an actor, he would try to model himself on Granger (they would star together 33 years later in The Wild Geese), and he still carries today those values of suave authority and charm that Granger embodied on screen. That being said, much of Moore’s early career was on the stage (he recounted sharing a class with Lois Maxwell, the future Miss Moneypenny at Rada in the 1940s), and he gave a suitably theatrical rendition of his first ever rehearsal as an actor, a recitation of Tennyson’s ‘The Revenge’ which he still remembers almost line for line to this day.
Roger Moore and Lana Turner in Diane (1956)
Introduced and interviewed by Gareth Owen, who ghostwrote his memoirs, Sir Roger is a natural raconteur, and he talked through his seventy-year acting career in his usual disarming fashion. The highlights of this history, some of which he touched upon and others he did not, include his role as Stephen Colley in the play I Capture the Castle. The notices he received for his performances were so glowing that it led him to being offered both an MGM contract and a chance to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. He accepted the more lucrative MGM contract. If he had gone with the RSC, I doubt critics would have sniped years later that his acting range was limited to how high he can raise his eyebrows. His initial career in the US was not an unqualified success. Few people remember today that he replaced James Garner on the hit TV series Maverick. However, he would find tremendous success back in the UK as Simon Templar, aka The Saint in the biggest television show of the 1960s. Moore was in the running to be James Bond when Cubby Broccoli was first looking at actors for Dr No. However, it would not be until 1973, after squeezing in another TV hit The Persuaders! with Tony Curtis, that Moore landed the role of the cinema’s greatest hero. The story that Moore was Ian Fleming’s first choice to play Bond may well be false, even though it was repeated by Fleming’s biographer, but it is true that Moore immersed himself in Fleming’s writing when preparing for the role. As he revealed in a recent interview:
When I first took on the part, I read Fleming’s books. There was little offered in them about the character. However, I remember reading one line that said Bond had just completed a mission – meaning a kill. He didn’t particularly enjoy killing but took pride in doing his job well. That was the key to the role as far as I was concerned.
The Venetian Vase 
Thank you for following my site. Your interest in crime and crime fiction drew me in to read your posts and I find them interesting and informative. Roger Moore is second behind Sean Connery as my favorite Bond. And I have a connection to the Bond film ‘Live or Let Die’ once removed. The boat racing and jumping scenes from the film were tech’d by the Evinrude Outboard Florida Tech Rep that also regularly visited the boat shop where I worked my last two years of college. He had great stories from the set where the scenes were filmed in Louisiana. Though Evinrude almost lost the placement until he was able to work his race boat magic and wring a few extra rpm’s from the engines. He was amazed at he amount of wasted effort and the “sit on your ass and wait” time on the movie set. Roger Moore was a gentleman but some of the supporting “actors” were real jerks. I’ve seen the movie several times and always look forward to the boat scenes.
Great to hear from you Mike. Roger Moore was my favourite Bond but I admit as the first Sean Connery may well have been the best. I love the boast chase in Live and Let Die and look forward to watching it again after what you told me. Evinrude did a great job when you see how great it looks onscreen. Everything I’ve heard about life on a movie set suggests that its as boring as hell. Proof that its hard work though.