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Last Update : 30/4/15

Like most children of the 60’s I first became aware of Roger Moore in his role as Simon Templar, the Saint, the fictional hero of the novels written by Leslie Charteris.

Perhaps more than even his dashing debonair ways, his impeccable looks and his on screen insouciance, I was attracted to his comedic skills and in particular his way of imbuing the phrase “but darling….” with such a wonderful ring of insincerity. His onscreen female partners patently believed in him which of course made his characterisations even more appealing because in real life, women are much too street savvy for such folly. Later in his career and moving into his fifties, he recognised the march of time, gently rebuffing the advances of a teenage actress in one of his latter day Bond movies with the encouraging words “Yes, well, you put your clothes on, and I’ll buy you an ice cream.”

He enjoyed worldwide fame as The Saint and thereafter James Bond 007 inheriting the shoes vacated by Sean Connery and extended his lifespan as a leading man until he was nearly sixty. Since that time he has appeared in mainly cameo roles in film and television productions, starred in some hilarious commercials and worked tirelessly as a Goodwill Ambassador for Unicef. He is greatly admired in the industry for his punctuality, commitment, amiability, self deprecating manner and one would be hard pressed to find anybody who has a bad word professionally to say about him. He has battled bowel cancer and at eighty four still leads a fairly active lifestyle. This autumn he is touring Britain doing a one man show where he will be interviewed on stage and take questions from his audience. He divides his time between homes in Switzerland and Monaco and received a knighthood from the Queen in 2003.

By his own admission he is not a great actor but he is a great movie star and still eminently recognisable around the world. He has probably only cinematically stretched himself twice in his career. The first of these celluloid ventures was “The Man who haunted himself,” a comparatively low budget film first released in 1970 which subsequently showed up on BBC schedules throughout the remainder of the decade and then disappeared into oblivion; an underserved postscript to a worthy effort. Towards the end of his tenureship as 007 he appeared as a psychiatrist in “The Naked face.”

As a movie star, he displayed admirable humility in 1991 when he backed out at the last minute from what would have been his West End singing debut in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Aspects of love.” When he subsequently discussed his pitching problems many people incorrectly interpreted his concerns as deficiencies in his singing voice. What concerned him was the absence of any “bell note” in certain numbers. Coming into a production number ‘sans accompaniment’ and remaining in pitch with the orchestra four bars later is a daunting prospect. My own pitching is admirable, but nowhere near perfect. In a crowded club I can veer off to the tune of -5% – +5%. When performing numbers that began with vocals only, I would always reference myself with a lightly plucked guitar chord (bell note) inaudible to my audience. Roger would have had no comparable lifebelt, and accordingly lost his nerve.

2012 marks his twenty first anniversary as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and the popular British actor and humanitarian is still going strong in his starring role as an advocate for the world’s most vulnerable children.

“I’ve been an exceedingly lucky actor, and the luck of it all was that I was able to come and work for UNICEF,” Sir Roger has said. “I think that working with UNICEF has taught me humility. I realize that when I was trotting around the world as 007 I did not appreciate how the other half lives – in fact, it’s more than half.” Since his appointment as a Goodwill Ambassador in August 1991, Sir Roger has visited UNICEF-supported programmes around the world, bringing attention to children’s needs and enlisting widespread public support and donations. He has given compelling voice to a range of issues, from HIV/AIDS to landmine injuries, disability rights, iodine deficiency and more.

In November 2001, he helped launch the partnership between UNICEF and FIFA, the world governing body of football, which includes a focus on preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS among young people.

At the same time, he played a key part in promoting Kiwanis International’s Worldwide Service Project, which has raised more than $90 million for eliminating iodine deficiency, the primary cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage.

Sir Roger received the World Service Medal from Kiwanis for that work.

It goes without saying therefore, that this is a man who not only appreciates the lifestyle his fame has afforded him, but has also felt compelled to devote the last third of his life to a worthy cause. It is this public perception of his social conscience, allied to an affable public demeanour, charm and discretion that has enabled him to withstand periodic media scrutiny about his private life.

Like with so many public personalities I only know what I have read third hand from various sources. Nevertheless certain facts are irrefutable. He has been married four times and all his three children were by his third wife. As with Sean Connery, various permutations emerge about Sir Roger’s private life. Perhaps he has been (a) remarkably restrained man with the ladies in an industry noted for its promiscuity, (b) active but particularly discreet whilst engendering a similar response from his partners, or © has benefited from a combination of both factors. The overriding impression is one of restraint amidst temptation. In Moore’s case, the fly in the ointment is a penchant for periodically uprooting himself from one current domestic situation for greener pastures elsewhere. He was in his mid twenties when he embarked on his second marriage to the highly successful British singing star, Dorothy Squires. She was by then in her late thirties and it was for both of them their second marriage. With her many show business contacts she was undoubtedly of great value to the struggling actor in his efforts to break into the Hollywood big league. As posterity would have it, Moore secured regular television work in the States, most notably in the long running series “Maverick” but big screen approval eluded him. Moore left her in 1961 when he fell in love with Louisa Matteoli, a fiery Italian actress on the set of a movie he was making. For Dorothy Squires, it signalled the beginning of a heartbreak that would envelop her for the rest of her life.

The Yorkshire Post published a concise synopsis of her life thereafter and the article can be located at

http://www.bulterman.eu/Squires/dorothy_squires.htm\

A further resource charting Moore’s marital breakups can be located at

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-487366/Why-did-saint-Roger-Moore-break-hearts.html\

The article states that Squires, who was already 38 when Moore married her, had suffered a series of miscarriages and was never able to carry a pregnancy beyond three months. Moore was later to say that, had he and Squires had children, he might have made a different decision over their marriage. Taken at face value, this appears to be a rather callous confession but with my experience of women there is the distinct possibility that Squires never told Moore of her miscarriages and quizzed by him over her childless first union attributed her barren years to the demands of her professional career. The poor woman may still have harbored aspirations of motherhood and with the natural insecurities associated with marriage to a much younger man saw fit to protect her own interests. This plausible explanation would have fueled resentment on the actor’s part and linked inextricably to an innate desire to have children by his mid thirties, inevitably led to the marital break- up. Of course, he may have known or greatly surmised her position when he wed but at that stage in his life his career was paramount in his mind. I am unable to comment further on this point.

After well over thirty years with his third wife, Moore’s well ordered and luxurious lifestyle came under fire from the threat of bowl cancer, and as such it engendered a reassessment of his life.

On pages 282-3 of his autobiography he writes;

“I tumbled over and over into a well of self pity and anger. It was the sight of my body limping its way to the bathroom with a great plastic bag attached to the other end of the garden hose that gave me the despair of inadequacy. I felt emasculated. I know I must have been completely impossible to live with – the more I complained as I wallowed in self pity, the more Louisa started snapping back. When feeling fine, I was quite capable of handling outbursts of Italian temperament – I had been for a number of years. However these new and unwanted circumstances left me unable to cope.”

He goes onto add that

“I had plenty of time to think about my life and how close I had been to losing it. It was not very admirable behaviour I admit, but the seeds for life change had been planted and were beginning to grow.”

I have always been rather sceptical of all those stories of stoicism in the face of life threatening illnesses. For sure, there will be individuals who react better than others, who see their predicament as an opportunity to prioritise their life and to actively learn more about their illness. I just struggle with the notion of individuals who are overheard to say “why not me?” Moore was at least refreshingly candid about his own predicament.

I have wallowed in abject self pity once in my life to a point where I could not consider anyone’s welfare but my own. Emotionally, it’s a dead end. I am not one for making excuses for myself and I have to apply the same approach to others. What is patently apparent in life is that there is always someone just around the corner ready to step into either your own or your partner’s shoes.

His wife was Italian and neither ‘demure’ nor ‘shrinking violet’ are terminologies readily applied to persons of such descent. Curiously, he may initially have found her temperament very exciting and different. Nobody held me at gun point when I married my wife, and I can presume Roger Moore experienced a similar scenario. Nevertheless, despite the obvious jokes regarding any communication problem, the following link is testimony to his endeavours in learning his wife’s native tongue. This impressive linguistic appearance on Italian television in the programme CANZONISSIMA 1974, was recorded shortly after principal photography on ‘Gold’ was completed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT0rr3gaqWI\

The songwriter Leslie Bricuse, in his autobiography “The Music Man” (2006), provides an interesting insight into the Moore’s marriage on pages 137-139. Having planned a leisurely yachting trip down the Thames with Bricusse and their wives stopping only on route for lunch, Roger was perplexed to find that the boat generously offered by Volvo was in fact a dinghy-sized open vessel barely ten feet in length. Moore overcame his wife’s initial expletives before suggesting they continue with their plans whereupon he spent much of the day good naturedly passing autograph books back to larger yacht owners at each lock-gate as they observed the curious small boat from the comfort of their chaises-longues. Needless to say with the boating gridlock, serving time at the restaurant was missed whilst Moore endured further menacing dark Italian threats like “stupido” and “cretino.” This incident displayed his good humour and affability and his wife’s inability to laugh at her predicament. Suitably humiliated in her own eyes, she would still be returning to a jet set lifestyle at the end of the day so was her behaviour truly called for? Who can say, but enough public ridiculing in front of close friends wears thin over many years; Luisa would have been best advised to have aired her thoughts at the close of day. I have found one of my wife’s most endearing and enduring qualities to be her ability to “lose it” one minute and then burst out laughing at herself as I look on non-plussed. So long as we are “communicating” rather than merely “talking” all these type of incidences merely form part of our dinner table comic reminiscenses and little else. Not an easy trick to perform, and harder still over decades. It’s no wonder Moore opted for a more tranquil existence in the end, but what did he do to fully emphasise to his wife the unhappiness he would feel at moments like these? If there were unsufficient heart to heart moments it is not unreasonable to presume that deep down, Louisa believed the dynamics of their relationship still worked after more than thity years. Ultimately she would receive just one phone call from Moore terminating the marriage.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2202445/Why-did-Roger-Moores-wives-beat-As-revealed-Bond-star-victim-domestic-violence.html

The third Mrs Moore had borne him three children. Amidst her histrionics and perceived lack of understanding she may well still have wiped his bottom when the fateful day arrived where he was unable to complete this most basic of bodily functions for himself. She was reportedly devastated at the end of her marriage and for many people the perceived greener pastures are little more than a new set of problems and often worse ones. When I am researching my commentaries, I am literally assaulted by advertising pop ups for dating agencies. Fall in love tomorrow with someone you literally know nothing about, and probably never will until it’s too late. Perhaps the trick lies in seriously analysing what it was that first attracted you to your present partner before life got in the way. Who knows? In any event, Moore found comfort in a fellow cancer sufferer and one can easily surmise how the conversation flowed between them. There is the possibility that his new ‘confidante’ pointed out to him that his wife was doing her best whilst struggling with the situation and that clearly she must still love him. This of course is a possibility and equally possible is the notion that the man used his illness to underpin a course of course of action he had wanted to undertake for some time. Equally, the new woman may also have chosen to empathise in a way only a fellow sufferer can, to soothe the man’s brow and to appear the paragon of understanding. What we can say with absolute certainty is that Roger Moore was not amongst that 1% of men who moved out of his matrimonial home to live alone.

Some indication of events leading up to the marriage breakup can be found at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1369755/Roger-Moore-pays-wife-10m-in-divorce-deal.html\

The article contains revalations of how ‘Kiki”, a friend Louisa had nursed through breast cancer, obsessively pursued her husband between the South of France and America. Luisa said that the first time “Kiki” walked into her villa in the South of France she exclaimed: “I would give anything for a house like this.” In retrospect, she should, she said, have taken more heed of her words as “she wanted to become me.”

Luisa, who eventually agreed to her husband’s request for a divorce, is said to be upset at the way her friend wanted to know all the details of her lifestyle – the Gstaad chalet, the St Paul de Vence villa, the Eaton Square flat and the Hollywood Hills house – and of their friendships with Frank Sinatra and Gregory Peck. Then, according to Luisa, she adopted large parts of them as her own. She has since scorned her as “a hanger-on who has had two husbands and three facelifts.”

Needless to say, none of his three children were present at his fourth marriage ceremony.

The event took place a few weeks after his divorce was finalised. I cannot comment here. I don’t understand the fascination with multiple marriages. There are tax planning strategies available in abundance and no obstacles in the way of a committed relationship. At what point should anyone take serious stock of their strengths and weaknesses, and resolve not to repeat themselves?

It has been reported that prior to his fourth nuptials, his divorce from Louisa had cost him £10m, half his estimated fortune and therein lies a damning indictment on the differences between men and women. With exceptions of course because there can be no universal rule amongst the sexes, men have the money and women have sex, and these two important tools are traded vigorously in the open “relationship market.” Of course, women rarely see sufficient virtue in a man worth risking a hard earned fortune over, but men will give away multiple fortunes to a litany of women if they’re stupid enough.

Moore professes to be “happier than words can express” in his personal life since his fourth marriage in 2002, and who am I to argue? But Edward VIII made similar proclamations about Wallis Simpson after the British Government posted him to the Bahamas as Governor, thus depriving him of any meaningful role in the affairs of his country. At a time when his sole concern was assisting his brother over affairs of state, he found himself consigned to vacuous dinner parties amongst the financially elite thousands of miles away from his homeland. Abdication was one thing, but marriage to Wallis was surely never going to strip him of any useful purpose in life? He lived to learn, and to deny thoughts of regret when challenged by his wife; essentially an existence millions of men who have forsaken family and duty in order to remarry can relate to. Finally, what of his third wife? To the best of my knowledge she has not remarried. Several close friends of the couple have forsaken her since the split. She fell in love with this man when she was twenty eight. She dealt with the agony of her Catholicism in living with Roger for seven years before marriage was possible. They experienced the joy of bringing children into the world and the sleepless nights associated with infants. They fretted together when one of their siblings was ill, built a home for themselves and reached a point with the children off their hands to resume some semblance of a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. She reputedly kept a close eye on him when he was working and in fairness, he may have grown tired of “flying plates” during domestic scenes. In his autobiography Moore alludes to the pressures of maintaining a lavish lifestyle and a need to ease off the accelerator, a thought brought on by his mother’s heart attack. Did he air these thoughts, and were they met by unreceptive ears? We can but speculate. Nevertheless, walking away from a thirty three year relationship is certainly something I struggle to get my head around.

Interviewed a while back about the secret to a good relationship the actor replied “If I knew, I wouldn’t have been married four times. I don’t know if my marriages taught me how to be a particularly good husband. I imagine I can be a pretty rotten one sometimes but I am very happy now.”

In 2009, Sir Roger paid £300 for a blue Heritage plaque to be fixed to the council house in Dafen, Carmarthenshire, where his second wife Dorothy Squires lived as a child. The always colourful Dot was born in a horse-drawn caravan at Pontyberem, eight miles away. Beyond doubt, old age brings with it a sense of wistfulness and regret, and the sound of creaking limbs does little to lighten the tone of those quiet introspective moments.