Luisa wears the pants

Roger's wife Luisa has suggested that he give up the 007 role. Roger, himself, is mum about his future in the Bond movies. In light of Sean's recent action to reclaim the role for one more time, Moore remarks that his lawyers are discussing the affair - but that's all he offers. It just simply doesn't worry him who plays in the next Bond.

Roger's next role in "North Sea Hijack" was chosen from him by Luisa. To say the least, it's an offbeat role for the suave Moore. The character he plays hates women, lives with his cats, does niddlepoint, wear Edwardian-style suits, and a full beard. Nevertheless, Roger values his wife's opinion, and found the role to be a fun change of pace.

Luisa is intensely ptractical about her role in their marriage.

"I wear the trousers in our family - and Roger knows it", she says. Roger answers in return, "I don't always go along with what Luisa has to say, but I always listen. Otherwise she'd hit me, and then I'd have to take her along to the doctor to have her wrist set. That actually happened once". They have been together for 18 loving years now, so the occasional battle hasn't done either of them any harm.

A scandalous affair - with a happy ending

For a while, it seemed as if Roger Moore and his beloved Luisa Mattioli, an Italian actress he met while filming a movie in Italy after fleeing Hollywood in 1961, would never be able to marry. When they met and fell in love, Roger was married to his second wife, British singer Dorothy Squires. (His first marriage in 1946 was to ice-skating star Doorn Moore, whom he divorced seven years later to marry Squires).

Roger's wife steadfastly refused to give him a divorce - even though his affair with Luisa was out in the open. Undaunted, they lived together - shocking all of the unliberated world back then - and had two children out od wedlock, a daughter Deborah, now 15, and a son, Geoffrey, now 12.

Then, suddenly, Squires filed for divorce in 1968 on the grounds of desertion. On April 11, 1969, an ecstatic Roger took Luisa for his bride. In 1973, the couple's third child, son Christian, was born.

Facing temptation

Truly, Roger Moore is every woman's dream man. He is tall, handsome, charming, athletic, and has a lively sense of humor. Even though he is 52 years of age, he looks ten years younger. Luisa is well aware that other women might find her husband quite desirable - but only she has him and intends to keep him.

Inevitably, since he has spent most of his movie life of late surrounded by attractive girls in the Bond films, Luisa has a vested interest in maintaining her marriage on an even keel. Whenever she can, Luisa goes with her husband when he sis filming. Once, before he went to do a scene with some highly nubile girl in Moonraker, Luisa said to Roger, "Don't enjoy your work too much". To me she later confided: " I was only partly joking. Of course I get jealous - any woman would when her husband is surrounded by such temptation. Roger faces more temptation than an other man on earth - and like any other man he could go off the rails. I am frightened that he might fall in love with someone else, but he has never given me cause and I would know immediatly if he had. I would be the first to taste the lips of another woman on him if he meant it. And he never has meant it with anyone else but me".

A girl with a small part but a busty figure once gave Roger a hot and heavy kiss in the film The Spy Who Loved Me. Roger wasn't amused and told the director who fired the girl in a rage.

Luisa undestands this sort of thing. She said to me: "When I give a party I invite the prettiest girls. I don't shut my eyes to what goes on, but if I see anything happening that shoudn't happen, that girl is out for ever. It is the woman I warn - never Roger. I have never had to warn Roger - not once in all the years we have been together. Women fancy him in flocks - he has a lot going for him after all".

Roger appreciates Luisa's understanding outlook. "Luisa is not being jealous, she is just being practical. Jealousy is an emotion impossible to live with".

The reluctant sex symbol

Roger laughs when he hears terms like sex symbol used to describe him. As a teenager, Roger was probably the least likely candidate for that title. He was grossly overweight and often the butt of his parent's jokes. "I recall once when I tried a new trenchcoat, my father remarked that I looked like a sack of mud tied in the middle with a belt".

As a result, Roger grew up a bit of self-conscious. "I wasn't a good mixer, and until my early teens, I had absolutely no knowledge of sex. I remember falling in love with a girl and never getting to hold her hand, let alone kiss her". Quite an admission for one of today's reigning sex symbols ! Luckily, Roger shed his baby fa during his later teens and along the way developed the handsome matinee idol face that would propel him to stardom

Just an average guy

"The audience conception of me is as a sharp, sophisticated cookie", Roger says with all sincerity. "But they're wrong. I come from Stockwell, just an ordinary neighborhood district in the south of London and a long way from elegant Mayfair. I always believed that an actor was someone who worked. So when offers came along, I just asked how much and when do I start. Now I happen to be very rich, which is very nice because I like money and I like spending it even more. What's the point in ending up with long fingernails and horrible hair like Howard Hughes ? Who'd want that with all his millions ?"

In films, Roger concedes he is a leading man, either flip or heroic, but one of who unfortunately is resigned to two basic expressions: "either left eyebrow raised or right". He insists that he is still an itinerant actor living out of a suitcase, only now his luggage is leather from Ferragamo.

Musing over his success with his penetrating blue eyes staring off into the distance, Roger sarcastically concludes about his fantastic ("mediocre", he calls it) career: "I have been very lucky in this area because when I was learning my trade in Hollywood, it took them years to realize that Roger George Moore was no bloody good. I think that's what I'm going to have put on my tombstone when I die: 'R.G.M. was N.B.G.'. After all, success wasn't a dream I had in those days - it was a downright impertinence".

Article by David Lewin

 

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