When I was a young girl, I was infatuated with James Bond. Most kids see a globetrotting spy with the coolest gadgets, cars, locations, and outfits and think that's the best thing since sliced bread. It was always a toss-up between Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore as my favorite Bonds; nothing against Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig or the others, but I watched Connery and Moore the most. Regardless of personal preference, Sir Roger Moore was as smooth as his on-screen persona and he was rather fond of both pipes and cigars. Today, we're going to celebrate Moore's legacy with a toast and smoke as we explore this legend's life.

Roger Moore's Early Life

Roger George Moore was born on October 14, 1927, in Stockwell, London. His father George Alfred Moore was a Metropolitan Police officer in central London, and his mother was Lillian "Lily" Pope. His early life was largely uneventful. When he turned 18, he was to apprentice at an animation studio but was let go after he made a mistake with some cells. Luckily, fate would smile upon him when his father investigated a robbery at director Brian Desmond Hurst's home, known best for his 1951 film Scrooge. When Hurst met Moore, he hired him as an extra for Caesar and Cleopatra, a largely forgotten adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play. This marked Moore's second appearance on screen and while it wasn't a groundbreaking role for Moore, it was a promising start to his career.

Hurst was impressed enough by Moore's performance, and paid for him to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Moore spent three terms training there, with his studies helping define his relaxed playboy demeanor that would become his signature acting style. He finally graduated in 1945.

As was often the case during World War II for young men, Moore was conscripted for national service and on September 21, 1946, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant. He served as an officer in the Combined Services Entertainment, which was the official provider of live entertainment to the British Armed Forces. Eventually, Moore rose to the rank of captain and commanded a small depot in West Germany.

Roger Moore the Actor

During Moore's service, he would star in two films — Gaiety George, a historic musical, and Piccadilly Incident, a drama — before taking a three-year hiatus until his next project Trottie True. Moore was not the leading star in any of these films, but they helped him start his career. His role in Trottie True would have Moore act alongside future James Bond co-star, Christopher Lee.

Moore continued to gain prestige with his first television appearance in The Governess, where he played the very minor role of Bob Drew. Moore recalls the experience in his memoir Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown.

While Moore's acting career was off to a slow start, his UK modeling career was more prominent during this time period. Moore was always a handsome man, catching the eyes of many women and the envy of his fellow men. He served as a model for a wide range of products but perhaps his most famous were his print ads for knitwear, which earned him the name 'The Big Knit,' dubbed by Michael Caine. Moore would cross the pond around 1953 to Hollywood, appearing in a handful of movies and TV episodes before being signed by MGM in 1954.

His MGM career began with The Last Time I Saw Paris, in which he starred alongside the legendary Elizabeth Taylor, before his next role in Interrupted Melody, where he starred third under Glenn Ford and Eleanor Park. His last MGM film was Diane, where he played under Lana Turner and Pedro Armendariz. Moore was let go two years into a seven-year contract after the film's failure to perform. Kevin Lyons and Patrick Fahy share in Moore's obituary a comment he made about his short-lived career there: "At MGM, RGM [Roger George Moore] was NBG [no bloody good]."

Moore's career remained bleak until 1958 when he secured the role as Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe in the series Ivanhoe. Once again, the series saw another future Bond co-star with Robert Brown, who would play M in several of the 1980s films. Moore and Christopher Lee would reunite when Lee made an appearance as a guest star. Ivanhoe was also notable for being some of the first of the injuries Moore would endure while doing his own stunts. The now archived site Television Heaven accounts some of Moore's stunt-work injuries.

Of course, the life of a leading man led to some curious fan interactions. Moore recalls one early fan interaction in his personal diary:

Ivanhoe opened the door, and by 1959 Moore was signed into another contract with Warner Bros. Here he would star in The Alaskans as the lead star "Silky" Harris. Next he would star in Maverick as Beau Maverick. Two years later, he'd secure the role as Simon Templar in The Saint. The Saint would propel Moore into international stardom, with many Hollywood elite praising Moore for his performance. One interaction between Moore and Frank Sinatra sticks out in his memoir My Word is My Bond:

The Saint was notable for more than just being a quality show; it's when Moore developed his trademark raised eyebrow, alongside his suave quips that he would eventually land him the role of James Bond.

Moore as James Bond

Without a doubt, Moore's portrayals of James Bond remains his best known role. When Sean Connery stepped back from the role in 1966, it was brought to Moore's attention that he was being considered for the role but Moore didn't consider it truly possible until Connery retired after Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. Moore was approached by producer Albert Broccoli in August 1972 to take on the role in the new James Bond film Live and Let Die. Moore was 44 when he accepted the role, marking him as the oldest actor to portray Bond.

Moore recalls the first trial of being the new Bond in his memoir, My Word is My Bond:

Marking a new era for both Moore and Bond, screenwriters felt the need to evolve Bond into the flow of the 1970s. Watch a Connery Bond film and a Moore film back-to-back and the differences are noticeable. While both portrayed a confident demeanor, Connery had a more rugged charm, with the perfect blend of sophistication and toughness. Moore's Bond was more quippy; he was slick, he could fight, but he tended to be one step ahead of the game with the perfect trick or gadget up his sleeve when the moment came. Moore admits that his Bond was a departure from the standard archetype, "My personality is different from previous Bonds. I'm not that cold-blooded-killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs."

Live and Let Die was a commercial success and was followed up with The Man with the Golden Gun, where Moore played against Christopher Lee as the main villain — the deadly assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the titular man with the golden gun. These films were followed by The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and his final portrayal of Bond in A View to Kill.

Moore starred in a total of seven 007 films, affording him the record of playing Bond the most during the Eon series. He retired from the role at the age of 58. Moore's career as Bond was highly successful and many of his films are regarded as some of the series' best.

Moore's career after Bond was casual with a few major roles, like the parody character of Seymour Goldfarb in The Cannonball Run, and later in his career, the Chief in Spice World.

Moore Outside of Film

Outside of film, Moore was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and animal welfare advocate. He worked alongside PETA to discourage foie gras, a French delicacy of the liver of duck or geese. He even funded some ad campaigns for the crusade. Outside of his work with PETA, he spearheaded awareness campaigns for a variety of animal welfare causes, including Morgan, the captive killer whale; a campaign to ban the use of wild animals in British circuses; and various criticisms of sport hunting. In 2003, Moore's contributions to charitable causes earned him a knighthood, by Queen Elizabeth.

Moore was married four times, finally settling with Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup, who he began dating after his prostate cancer diagnosis in 1993. Moore's life was plagued by health issues like prostate cancer, requiring a pacemaker for a slow heartbeat, type-2 diabetes, and several other cancers. He died on May 23, 2017, from cancers of the lung and liver surrounded by his family in his home in Switzerland.

Moore the Smoker

Roger Moore's love of cigars was readily evident during his time as James Bond and he can be seen smoking them on screen as 007. Moore was the first Bond to smoke cigars, departing from his predecessors who only smoked cigarettes as well as Ian Fleming's description of Bond in his novels. In Fleming's first novel Casino Royale (1953), Bond's cigarette of choice is "a Balkan and Turkish mixture made for him by Morlands of Grosvenor Street." Fleming personally disliked cigars and would use cigar smoke as an image of sadness or cheapness in some of his works.

Previous to Moore's appearances as Bond, cigar smoking in 007 films was rarely seen. Bernard Lee, who played M, Bond's superior and head of the Secret Intelligence Service, smoked a cigar in Goldfinger (1964) while briefing Bond at the Bank of England. Italian actor Adolfo Celi, who played the villain Emilio Largo in 1965's Thunderball can be seen smoking cigarillos at various points.

Moore's cigar smoking is also a rare instance of an actor's personal preferences being used to inform a characterization of Bond. There's also a popular, long-standing rumor that Moore added a clause in his contract which provided with an unlimited supply of Montecristo cigars while shooting the Bond films. While he primarily enjoyed cigars, Moore occasionally smoked pipes and can be seen in photographs smoking a Falcon pipe while on set.

Sometimes cigars would be incorporated into action scenes such as Live and Let Die, when Bond used his cigar to create an improvised flamethrower with a can of aerosol aftershave to kill a snake. Later in the same scene, Bond uses his lit cigar to catch an armed intruder off guard as they sneak into his hotel room. The cigar he smokes in the film is the original Cuban Montecristo Especial No. 1, a smooth, medium-bodied cigar that delivers a creamy, well-rounded flavor profile with notes of vanilla and baked bread.

Cigars returned in The Man with the Golden Gun, and Bond can be seen smoking one during a belly dancer's performance, waiting to retrieve a spent golden bullet to track its manufacturer. Bond also smokes one outside of the Bottoms Up Club in Hong Kong, moments before meeting Francisco Scaramanga's henchman, Nick Nack. For this film, Moore smoked the Montecristo Especial No. 3, a shorter, Corona-sized version of the lengthier, Lonsdale-sized Especial No. 1.

Regardless of your preferences for who played Bond, Moore was an icon: a suave man with a big heart and dry wit. It's just a bonus that he had great taste in smoking preferences. A tribute piece written for The Telegraph sums up Moore's Bond rather nicely, saying, "Most people settle on Sir Roger Moore or Sir Sean Connery as their favourite Bond. Why Moore? Because he was Bond incarnate, and then some. He was the quintessential Englishman, somewhere between gentleman and jester — a slick, schmaltzy, suave provocateur. Moore's 007 was, in a word, fun: never above a wry laugh, preferably with a dry Martini in hand." Moore perfectly embodied the role, making one of cinema's most beloved and enduring characters even more spectacular.