Within months of his divorce in
1953, he married Welsh singing super-
star Dorothy Squires, 12 years
his senior. While still married to Van
Steyn, he’d met Squires at one of her
famous parties, packed with celebrities
like Jackie Collins and Petula
Clark. Squires swooned
when the 24-year-old
began flirting with her,
and Moore was “flat-
tered by the attention
this amazing woman
showed in me”.
Convinced he was
movie star material, the
singer put her career on
hold to help Moore with
his, introducing him to industry con-
tacts and persuading him to try his luck
in Hollywood. The couple married in
New Jersey in 1953, and eventually
Moore landed a contract with MGM.
His first film was with Elizabeth Taylor
in The Last Time I Saw Paris. “Liz was
one of the most beautiful women in the
world,” he told marie claire. “When
those extraordinary violet eyes stared at
you, you fell head over heels.”
Despite his starlet-studded social
life – which caused his wife no end of
angst – Moore failed to set Hollywood
alight, and Squires had three miscar-
riages. The couple returned to England.
In 195 8 , aged 31, he was offered
a part in the TV series Ivanhoe. It led to
regular work and in 1962, Moore landed
the starring role of Simon Templar in
a new spy series, The Saint. It was a hit,and Moore perfected the suave persona
which paved the way for his role as Bond.
On the home front, things weren’t
quite as rosy. In 1961, Moore left Squires
for Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, whom
he’d met on the set of Romulus and the
Sabines. She fell pregnant, and Squires
fell to pieces. “Dorothy was not happy,”
he recalled. “She threw a brick through
my window. She cut her arms doing it.
The police came and they said, ‘Madam,
you’re bleeding,’ and she said, ‘It’s my
heart that’s bleeding.’” Squires refused
to divorce him for years, and even sued
Moore for loss of conjugal rights (he ig-
nored the suit). Finally she relented, and
in April 1969 Moore married Mattioli in
Caxton Hall, London, with 600 scream-
ing fans outside. The couple had three
children together: Deborah (1963),
Geoffrey (1965) and Christian (1973).
Moore’s fame fur-
ther soared in 1971
when he starred in The
Persuaders! w i t h Tony
Curtis. Earning one
million pounds for a
single series, he became
the world’s highest-paid
actor. But he never saw
himself as a great thes-
pian, and joked that his
range consisted of “left eyebrow raised,
right eyebrow raised”. Then in 1972,
along came the chance to play Bond. But
first the 45-year-old was ordered to lose
weight, tone up and cut his hair.
That October, filming began on
Live and Let Die, and Moore’s life
changed forever. He spent the next 12
years filming in far-flung corners of the
earth, falling into the arms of beautiful
actresses, including Jane Seymour, Britt
Ekland and Carole Bouquet. Moore was
known as a prankster, friendly to all,
and unable to take his role too seriously.
When he was done asking for his
martinis shaken, not stirred, Moore was
approached by Audrey Hepburn to em-
bark on what he saw as his life’s most
important work, as a UNICEF Good-
will Ambassador. “Playing Bond at the
world’s most exotic locations, where thedisparity between wealth and poverty
was extreme, helped stir my social con-
science,” he said. “I’d be staying at fine
hotels, but if you looked around, you’d
see how desperately poor many
locals were.” He would eventually be
knighted for his humanitarian and
charity work in 2003.
In 1993, Moore was diagnosed with
prostate cancer, causing him to reassess
his future. “It was rather painful, and in
many ways, life changing,” Moore ex-
plained. “I suppose I thought about life,
and what was going on in mine, and
I took some fairly hefty decisions.” He
ended up leaving Mattioli for her best
friend, Swedish socialite Kristina “Kiki”
Tholstrup, who he called his “lifeline”.
“It was a very messy time in Roger’s
life and divorcing the mother of his chil-
dren caused him untold stress, but his
mind was made up and he just wanted
to be with Kiki. He told friends she was
the love of his life,” Lois Maxwell told
marie claire. Moore and Tholstrup
married in 2002. “She really looks after
me,” he told maire claire two years ago.
“She makes me breakfast in bed every
morning. I’m a very lucky man!”
But by January 2017 the cancer was
back, and this time Moore was told he
had just months to live. He died on May
23, aged 89, surrounded by family at his
Switzerland home.
Friend and former co-star Jane
Seymour remembered him as “so funny,
kind and thoughtful to everyone. He
taught me what a movie star was and
really should be. He was my Bond.”Moore never saw
himself as a great
thespian. “My
acting range? Left
brow raised, right
brow raised”Moore, pictured with fourth
wife Kiki, was knighted for
his UNICEF work (left) in
2003; it came 50 years after
his first film, The Last
Time I Saw Paris with
Elizabeth Taylor (below).marieclaire.com.au 217ALAMY; AUSTRALSCOPE; GETTY IMAGES; SUNSET BOULEVARD/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES