What is common to Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig?
Okay. That was easy. They are all actors who played Bond. James Bond.
This fictitious British Secret Service Agent of MI6 has kept at least three generations of action-movie lovers, on tenterhooks; but is yet to be fully understood by the new millennials.
I just hope the young don’t rate the debonair James Bond, on the same lines as the dumb Austin Powers.
But what made this particular actor, Roger Moore, who passed away this week, special?
It was his suave and smooth style, I think. With his cool-calm and deadpan face, while he performed those gut-wrenching and heart-thumping stunts as James Bond, he personified the spy who loved danger; and the ruthless man, with or without the golden gun, but with a license to kill.
Which is why, perhaps, among all those actors I had watched play Agent 007, I somehow remember Roger Moore’s action-scenes better.
He was not the expressive kind. But, perhaps, it is that very not-so-revealing-demeanour itself, on his handsome face, that made him a ‘perfect’ cast, for the role of that ‘almost perfect’ spy.
It was from the high school boys and from the neighbourhood young men that I first got to hear of the escapades of James Bond.
I used to stand in awe, among those big boys, listening to the stories of the thrilling escapes of this slippery spy.
One of the big boys was a big fan of James Bond. He had had a belt with a buckle shaped like a pistol (with 007 embossed on it). The buckle is etched in my memory, along with the story which the buckle-owner told me -- about ‘Jaws’, a goliath of a man with metal teeth, whom James Bond/Roger Moore beats.
By the time I was old enough to actually watch a James Bond movie, it was already 1983. The movie was ‘Octopussy’.
But Roger Moore had, by then, already made five James Bond Movies, out of the seven he made in his career.
And I had already heard stories from ‘Live and Let Die (1973), ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ (1974), ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977), ‘Moonraker’ (1979) and ‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981) – all Roger Moore’s movies.
So, ‘Octopussy’, you could say, was like a 'coming of age' movie for me. Of course, much later, I had watched all other movies, and I got the full gist of Bond’s character.
Interestingly, in this movie, ‘Octopussy’, James Bond (Roger Moore) is seen fighting the bad guys, in my country. India.
With Indian actors like Kabir Bedi and Vijay Amritraj (Yes, the famed Tennis player acted in a few movies), and with excellent shooting locations like the banks of River Ganges, streets of Bombay, stations of Indian Railways, minarets of Taj Mahal, and lakes of Rajastan’s Forts, this movie made me feel proud.
And even before the movie released, I had watched pictures of Roger Moore, from Udaipur of Rajastan State of India, in the LIFE magazine.
Not many people know that while filming ‘Octopussy’ in India in 1983, Roger Moore was shocked at the utter poverty on display, and soon got engaged in humanitarian work.
His colleague Audrey Hepburn impressed him with her work for UNICEF, and consequently he became UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991. He was also the voice of "Santa" in the UNICEF cartoon "The Fly Who Loved Me."
He may have acted as a spy who had the licence to kill. But, he was a humanitarian with heart, with reverence for life.
Okay. That was easy. They are all actors who played Bond. James Bond.
This fictitious British Secret Service Agent of MI6 has kept at least three generations of action-movie lovers, on tenterhooks; but is yet to be fully understood by the new millennials.
 |
| Roger Moore in 'The Octopussy', with Kabir Bedi (standing, with turban) |
But what made this particular actor, Roger Moore, who passed away this week, special?
It was his suave and smooth style, I think. With his cool-calm and deadpan face, while he performed those gut-wrenching and heart-thumping stunts as James Bond, he personified the spy who loved danger; and the ruthless man, with or without the golden gun, but with a license to kill.
Which is why, perhaps, among all those actors I had watched play Agent 007, I somehow remember Roger Moore’s action-scenes better.
He was not the expressive kind. But, perhaps, it is that very not-so-revealing-demeanour itself, on his handsome face, that made him a ‘perfect’ cast, for the role of that ‘almost perfect’ spy.
It was from the high school boys and from the neighbourhood young men that I first got to hear of the escapades of James Bond.
I used to stand in awe, among those big boys, listening to the stories of the thrilling escapes of this slippery spy.
One of the big boys was a big fan of James Bond. He had had a belt with a buckle shaped like a pistol (with 007 embossed on it). The buckle is etched in my memory, along with the story which the buckle-owner told me -- about ‘Jaws’, a goliath of a man with metal teeth, whom James Bond/Roger Moore beats.
By the time I was old enough to actually watch a James Bond movie, it was already 1983. The movie was ‘Octopussy’.
But Roger Moore had, by then, already made five James Bond Movies, out of the seven he made in his career.
And I had already heard stories from ‘Live and Let Die (1973), ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ (1974), ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977), ‘Moonraker’ (1979) and ‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981) – all Roger Moore’s movies.
So, ‘Octopussy’, you could say, was like a 'coming of age' movie for me. Of course, much later, I had watched all other movies, and I got the full gist of Bond’s character.
Interestingly, in this movie, ‘Octopussy’, James Bond (Roger Moore) is seen fighting the bad guys, in my country. India.
With Indian actors like Kabir Bedi and Vijay Amritraj (Yes, the famed Tennis player acted in a few movies), and with excellent shooting locations like the banks of River Ganges, streets of Bombay, stations of Indian Railways, minarets of Taj Mahal, and lakes of Rajastan’s Forts, this movie made me feel proud.
 |
| Roger Moore with Vijay Amritraj (Right, in blazer) |
Not many people know that while filming ‘Octopussy’ in India in 1983, Roger Moore was shocked at the utter poverty on display, and soon got engaged in humanitarian work.
His colleague Audrey Hepburn impressed him with her work for UNICEF, and consequently he became UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991. He was also the voice of "Santa" in the UNICEF cartoon "The Fly Who Loved Me."
He may have acted as a spy who had the licence to kill. But, he was a humanitarian with heart, with reverence for life.
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