Adorable Story #151: Roger Moore

“I’ve been lucky”

— Sir Roger Moore

Over the years, Roger Moore has become one of the most recognizable faces in British cinema. Behind the smooth screen image stood a man with a long personal journey, marked by success, setbacks, and surprising second acts.

Table of Contents: Early Years / Education / Early Career / James Bond / Personal Life / Philanthropy / Later Years

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Sir Roger George Moore was born on October 14th, 1927 in Stockwell, south London. He was the only child of George Alfred Moore, a policeman, and Lillian “Lily” Pope, a housewife. He grew up during the Depression and the Second World War, when London was heavily bombed by the Nazi.

Moore later said he was a sickly child and once joked that he had “every childhood disease known to man.”

His father’s steady job in the police gave the family modest security. He often spoke warmly about his parents, especially about his mother, who encouraged his early artistic attempts.

He first went to St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Stockwell, south London. Later, he attended Dr Challoner’s Grammar School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. During the Second World War, like many London children, he was evacuated for safety.

He left formal schooling at age 15 and briefly trained at an art college. It did not quite work out and that failure pushed him toward acting.