Sir Roger Moore, 1927-2017

Sir Roger Moore was, of course, best known for playing a remorseless alcoholic sociopath in seven films, increasingly flabbergasted after each successive one that he hadn't been fired yet. (He was fifty-eight when he finally gave it up.) Also, despite the character's quintessential Britishness, Moore was in fact the first Englishman to play him - his predecessors being an Aussie and a Scot.

His favorite of these films was The Spy Who Loved Me, which happens to be awesome.

Anyway, here are some choice quotes from his book, Bond on Bond:

"When I handed in my licence to kill I was constantly asked who should replace me. No! I lie. I was asked that question after about my third film, which, of course, gives an insecure actor a great feeling of being wanted. In fact, I did make a number of suggestions to Cubby - always names of really bad actors so I looked good by comparison. In the end, I was forced to abandon that idea as I couldn't find any actors worse than me."

"Sometimes [to help Desmond Llewelyn, 'Q,' remember his lines] we had 'idiot boards' on set, with his technical dialogue written in large text. As he glanced up to remind himself of the next line, the cards were peeled back one after the other. I helpfully rewrote some of those too. I like being helpful."

"[Director] Terence Young and [editor] Peter Hunt decided to have a bit of fun with [the explosive attache case from From Russia With Love] when some United Artists executives were visiting Pinewood. They ran the first couple of reels of the movie, and when it reached the scene where Bond opens the attache case, Peter cut to the huge explosion from the end of Dr. No and ran the closing titles. The end."