Sir Roger Moore, the suavest James Bond and Man with the Golden Gun, bid adieu to the world who loved this spy, at age 89 after a brief but valiant fight with cancer in Switzerland.  His family confirmed the news on Twitter.

Teach love, generosity, good manners and some of that will drift from the classroom to the home and who knows, the children will be educating the parents…Sir Roger Moore

Best known for playing James Bond, the suave British spy, Moore had 007 James Bond movies to his name, including Octopussy, which put Udaipur on the silver screen map as a global movie destination.

I enjoy being a highly overpaid actor…Sir Roger Moore

Beginning the James Bond series with Moonraker in 1973, he played James Bond 007 in A View to a Kill; Live and Let Die; The Man with the Golden Gun; Octopussy; For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me, till 1985.

Moore was also known for playing Simon Templar in the television series The Saint between 1962 and 1969.  Moore was born on 14 Oct 1927 at Stockwell in London.

There is nothing glamorous about death…Sir Roger Moore

Octopussy, shot mostly in Udaipur in 1982 was released in the year 1983.  The Maharana of Udaipur had accorded permission for the movie to be shot at various places in the city.  All of us familiar with Udaipur will recognise Lake Palace, Pichola, Gangaur Ghat and the bylanes of the walled city in which Roger Moore was taken around in an auto rickshaw (Tuk Tuk taxi) by none other than tennis champion Vijay Amritraj.  Kabir Bedi was his arch-enemy towards the end of the movie – so this is the connect that Sir Roger Moore had with Udaipur.

Speaking of which, Octopussy is still screened in hotels in the walled city of Udaipur.  Octopussy was played by Maud Adams and was the 13th James Bond 007 movie and 5th for Sir Roger Moore.

Moore’s only other visit to India was in 2005 when he came in as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador to promote the use of iodized salt.  Moore was knighted by Her Excelency Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for services to charity.   Sir Roger Moore was appointed Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2008, the same year in which he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Source: Media Reports, Wikipedia

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