Guns and young women, two pillars of the Bond persona, had no place in the actor’s own life.
Today, May 23, 2026, marks the ninth anniversary of Sir Roger Moore’s death. The British actor died on May 23, 2017, at the age of 89 in Switzerland after a battle with cancer. To millions, he remains one of the most recognizable James Bond actors in movie history: charming, ironic, elegant and armed with that famous raised eyebrow.
But behind the man who played the world’s most famous secret agent seven times was a personality far more peaceful than his most famous role might suggest.
The Art of Being the Smooth Gentleman
Roger George Moore was born on October 14, 1927, in London. His father was a police officer, and Moore himself found his way into film almost by chance. After early small roles and training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he slowly worked his way up, first in British and American productions. He became internationally known long before Bond through television: In The Saint, he played the elegant adventurer Simon Templar starting in the 1960s, and later starred opposite Tony Curtis in The Persuaders!.
Those roles had already shaped the image that would later make him so successful as James Bond: worldly, dryly funny and almost impossible to rattle.
In 1973, Moore played James Bond for the first time in Live and Let Die. He followed it with The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me and several more, up to A View to a Kill. With seven official Bond films, Moore still holds the record within the Eon series. His Bond was different from Sean Connery’s tougher, more physical agent: Moore played 007 lighter, more ironic, almost comedic. He was less a brutal killer than a gentleman with a license to smile.
The Action Hero Who Hated Violence
That makes one detail from his life especially fascinating: Roger Moore had a real dislike of guns. In his memoirs, he wrote that the fear went back to an experience from his youth. As a teenager, he was shot in the leg by a friend with a BB gun. Later, during his time in the army, another traumatic incident followed: During training, a weapon reportedly exploded in his hands, leaving him deaf for several days.
Moore later said that anything that went bang made him blink. For an actor associated for decades with pistols, explosions and spy action, that was a striking contradiction.
That contradiction also made his Bond stand out. Moore never played the character’s violence as if he truly enjoyed the brutality. Looking back, he said he disliked how increasingly violent the Bond films became. He was especially uncomfortable with some of the violent moments in A View to a Kill. To him, Bond worked best when the character offered style, humor and escapism, not when he seemed as brutal as possible.
The Love Interests Who Could Have Been His Granddaughters
His departure from James Bond also had a lot to do with self-awareness. Moore was already 57 when he made his final Bond film. He later explained that he noticed the female leads were getting younger, and the age gap was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. In essence, he said the leading ladies were young enough to be his granddaughters, and that it eventually became distasteful. Instead of desperately clinging to the role, he drew the line and stepped away from Bond.
The Hero Behind the Roles
After Bond, Moore continued acting, but his second great life’s work happened away from the movies. In 1991, he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. For more than 25 years, he advocated for children in crisis regions, visited UNICEF projects around the world and raised awareness for issues including children’s rights, HIV/AIDS, child labor, landmine injuries and malnutrition. In 2003, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his humanitarian work.
That commitment suited a man who never took himself too seriously, but took other people very seriously. Moore was famous for his humor, self-deprecation and almost old-fashioned courtesy.
While many remember him mainly as the most light-footed Bond, his later life revealed another side: a star who used his fame to draw attention to people who had no platform of their own.
On May 23, 2026, the anniversary of Roger Moore’s death is therefore about more than James Bond. It is a reminder of an actor who became famous with guns, even though he feared them. Of a man who played one of the biggest action roles in movie history, but personally preferred charm over violence. And of an artist who eventually understood when it was time to let go of an iconic role.
Roger Moore was 007, but he was never only 007. He was the Bond with a wink, the gentleman with principles and a star whose most important mission may have begun only after his biggest movie role.