You know we love James Bond, right?

From learning about the life of Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming to sharing our thoughts on what kids and parents should know about Skyfall, we’re always up for learning based on our favorite secret agent.

 

All about Roger Moore

The man who’d later go on to play James Bond in the most movies, and to do so at the oldest age, was born Roger George Moore on Oct. 14, 1927, in London, England.

Moore grew up in England, then served in the British military, where he eventually became a captain, serving in Germany. His first acting gigs came in the early 1950s, when he was in commercials for knitwear and toothpaste. Hey, everyone starts somewhere!

His first regular performances included the TV show Maverick, on which he was “Cousin Beau,” and a series called The Saint, where he starred as a sort of modern-day Robin Hood. He first portrayed James Bond in Live and Let Die, which came out in 1973, and starred in six more Bond films after that, ending with A View to a Kill in 1985.

He acted in several other roles afterward, but nothing remarkable; instead, he devoted much of his time to fundraising efforts for many charities, most notably UNICEF, and in 2003, he was knighted by the Queen of England for the work he did for charity, even though he no longer lives in England, splitting his time between homes in Monaco, Switzerland and France.

Some of the fun things we learned about Moore included that, as seen in the picture with today’s post, he was a big cigar-smoker, and his contract to play Bond included an unlimited supply of Montecristo cigars during filming, which cost something like thousands of dollars. However, he quit smoking cigarettes in 1971 when he was co-starring in The Persuaders with actor Tony Curtis, who lectured him about it, and he quit smoking cigars when he was 65 years old after having prostate cancer surgery.

Sadly, Moore passed away May 23, 2017 after a short battle with cancer.

Read more about Roger Moore

• Roger Moore’s official website
• Roger Moore on Wikipedia
• Roger Moore on IMDb
• Roger Moore on Biography
• James Bond FAQ: All that’s left to know about everyone’s favorite superspy – This is a book we reference OFTEN as we talk about Bond, and we love it!

James Bond movies starring Roger Moore (in order)

• Live and Let Die
• The Man With The Golden Gun
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• Moonraker
• For Your Eyes Only
• Octopussy
• A View to a Kill

Ashar has seen all of these, and liked most of them. She’s seen Moore play Bond as well as, of course, Daniel Craig (her favorite), Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton. We’ve missed George Lazenby, the “forgotten Bond,” thus far.

Ideas for discussion

• What’s it like to follow in someone’s footsteps? Moore took the Bond torch from Sean Connery, who started the film franchise. Whether it’s a new boss following a well-liked boss who leaves or always being compared to older siblings, there’s a lot to talk about concerning the pros and cons of following in someone’s footsteps, whether they’re loved or hated.
• What is modern-day knighthood? One of the coolest things we learned about Roger Moore was that he was knighted. That means something different in many ways than what it used to, yet some of the values – chivalry, generosity, etc. – are the same. So what does it mean to be a knight? If we knighted people in the United States, who would you pick?
• If you were well-known, how would you use your fame? Look, even Moore has said in interviews that he wasn’t a super-great James Bond. And his non-Bond roles were fairly run-of-the-mill, too. But he has been well known because of it, and rather than try to leverage it for his own good, Moore spends a lot of time fundraising for UNICEF and other organizations, raising millions of dollars.

Join the birthday party

If you’re interested, there are many more cool facts about celebrities with October birthdays from my fellow iHomeschool Network bloggers. Click the image below to check them out!

And thanks for stopping by to learn more about Roger Moore!

You can check out more posts in our Learning Party series here!

Thanks to publicity photographer Allan Warren for the base photo used in the main image in today’s post.