The Untold Truth Of Roger Moore

Former James Bond star Sir Roger Moore has passed away at the age of 89, after a short battle with cancer. His passing was confirmed on May 23, 2017 via a statement posted to his official Twitter account. "We know our own love and admiration will be magnified many times over, across the world, by people who knew him for his films, his television shows and his passionate work for UNICEF which he considered to be his greatest achievement," wrote Moore's family. "Thank you Pops for being you, and for being so very special to so many people." The star will be given a private funeral in Monaco, according to his wishes.

Although many know Moore for his work from his role as 007 in seven James Bond films throughout the '70s and '80s, his life and legacy are much more than that. Here's a look back at the life of Roger Moore, and the events that shaped him into the man he was.

When he was still a teen, Moore and some of his friends auditioned to be extras in the movie Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains. Moore was given a role as a Roman legionnaire, and became friends with the film's assistant director, Brian Desmond Hurst. Several years later, Moore would take a small part for £5 per day in another one of Hurst's movies—1949's Tottie True—alongside fellow future British film star Sir Christopher Lee.

In 1944, Hurst suggested to Moore that he should attend the drama program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and after Moore successfully auditioned for the program, Hurst even paid for his tuition at RADA for three terms. One of his classmates at RADA was none other than Lois Maxwell, who would later play the original Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films. After graduating the program and turning 18, Moore was called up in 1946 to join the Royal Army Service Corps. He also married fellow RADA student Doorn Van Steyn that year. Moore stayed in the military for three years, eventually working for the CSE, which arranged shows and entertainment for soldiers abroad.

In 1954, Moore scored a seven-year contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios, but had a hard time landing meaty parts with the big Hollywood studio. Worse yet, the movies he did appear in at MGM—including The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Interrupted Melody (1955), The King's Thief (1955) and Diane (1956)—were all financial flops. As Moore later famously explained, "At MGM, RGM (Roger George Moore) was NBG [no bloody good]." The studio released him after just two years in his contract.

By the mid '50s, Moore switched tacks (and studios), trying his hand at acting for television and signing a contract with Warner Brothers. He starred in a string of roles in TV shows between 1958 and 1961, including Ivanhoe, The Alaskans, and Maverick. In 1962, Moore would score his breakout role, appearing as Simon Templar in the popular series The Saint—a part he'd play for seven years.

After achieving worldwide fame as the star of the Bond franchise, Moore often found himself tiring of answering the same old questions during every press event or interview he gave. To keep from dying of boredom, he started playing a one-sided game with reporters, as he explained in his memoir, Bond on Bond. "I often used to amuse myself by slipping in statements, such as the best thing about location work was that I could steal the hotel towels, or that I did all my own stunts apart from the sex scenes..."

Unfortunately, Moore eventually had to put a stop to his game when the interviewers took him seriously, with one British paper going so far as to print a story entitled "Roger Moore is a towel thief." The anecdote became a legend, even making it into BBC radio comedy programs. Moore never lost his sense of humor about the tale, and managed to convince Graham Norton in a 1999 interview that he still had his towel collection at home. In a 2008 interview with Reuters, he finally came clean about the myth: "It was a load of ... (nonsense)!"

While Moore married his first love—RADA classmate Doorn Van Steyn—in 1946, the marriage proved short-lived. The pair divorced by 1952, and Moore married again to Welsh singer Dorothy Squires in 1953. Again, the relationship wouldn't last long; Squires and Moore separated nine years later. Squires refused to grant Moore the divorce he wanted until 1969, but he didn't stay single long, immediately marrying Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, whom he'd been seeing since 1961. The couple had three children—Deborah, Geoffrey, & Christian. Mattioli and Moore would eventually go through a contentious breakup in 1993, with Mattioli also refusing to grant Moore a divorce until 2000. Perhaps for Moore, the fourth time was the charm; he married Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup in 2002, and the pair remained together until his death in 2017.

Moore described his previous three marriages as tumultuous, and even did a tell-all interview with ITV alleging physical abuse at the hands of Squires, who he accused of smashed a guitar over his head in a fit of rage. In contrast, Moore described his marriage to Tholstrup as "a tranquil relationship, there are no arguments," and called his wife Kristina "organized," "serene," "loving," and "calm."