Roger Moore’s love of mountains and life in Switzerland

On 23 May 2017, Roger Moore passed away at the age of 89 after a short battle with cancer.

Born in 1927 in Stockwell in south west London he started his film career at the age of 17 achieving fame in the fifties and sixties after starring in the British television series Ivanhoe and The Saint. His global fame was firmly established in the seventies and eighties when he starred as James Bond from 1973 until 1985.

Moore’s lucky break occurred when his father, a policeman, was investigating a break in at the home of film director Brian Desmond Hurst. This led to an introduction and eventually to young Roger being hired as an extra for the 1945 film Caesar and Cleopatra, according to the BBC.

In the 1960s, between filming, he started visiting the Swiss Alpine resort Gstaad in the canton of Bern. By 1978 he had decided to move there to offer his children a calmer life. According to Tribune de Genève, Moore liked to joke that “the residents are more interested in my car than me”. Years later, he told Swiss broadcaster RTS that he had moved to Gstaad after his kids, who learned to ski there, pressured him into it.

From Gstaad Moore moved to Crans-Montana in Valais on the other side of the Alps in 1996 where he spent his last days. Moore described Crans Montana as more relaxed.

While in Switzerland he was involved in charity work. From 1991 he was a travelling ambassador for UNICEF, after being introduced to the charity by Audrey Hepburn.

In 2015, employing his characteristic sense of humour, he starred in a Swisscom commercial. Speaking French he insists on being treated as any other customer despite his fame.

His sense of humour is displayed again in this RTS interview where he jokes about how he didn’t get an extended discount to ride on Swiss trains after starring in a Swiss Rail commercial. In this clip he also talks of his love of the mountains while out skiing.

After his death his family posted: “With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated.”

With the heaviest of hearts, we must share the awful news that our father, Sir Roger Moore, passed away today. We are all devastated. pic.twitter.com/6dhiA6dnVg

— Sir Roger Moore (@sirrogermoore) May 23, 2017

Moore’s Bond films include: Live and Let Die (1973); The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); Moonraker (1979); For Your Eyes Only (1981); Octopussy (1983); A View to a Kill (1985).

Sir Roger is survived by his wife, Kristina Tholstrup, and his three children.

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