The Spy Who Loved Me

Roger Moore (Actor) .. James Bond

Born: October 14, 1927
Died: May 23, 2017
Birthplace: Stockwell, London, England

Trivia: The only child of a London policeman, Roger Moore started out working as a film extra to support his first love, painting, but soon found he preferred acting, and so enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began his film, radio and stage career just after World War II (his early credits are often confused with American actor Roger Moore, a minor Columbia contractee of the 1940s), and also performed with a military entertainment unit. Though in childhood Moore had been mercilessly teased by friends and family alike for being fat, by the time he was ready to start his career, he had become an exceptionally handsome man with a toned, well-muscled body. Signed on the basis of his good looks to an MGM contract in 1954, Moore began making appearances in American films, none of which amounted to much dramatically; his biggest success of the 1950s was as star of the British-filmed TV series Ivanhoe. Signed by Warner Bros. Television for the 1959 adventure weekly The Alaskans, Moore became the latest of a long line of James Garner surrogates on Maverick, appearing during the 1960-1961 season as cousin Beau. After a few years making European films, Moore was chosen to play Simon Templar in the TV-series version of Leslie Charteris' The Saint (an earlier attempt at a Saint series with David Niven had fallen through). Moore remained with the series from 1963-1967, occasionally directing a few episodes (he was never completely comfortable as simply an actor, forever claiming that he was merely getting by on his face and physique). After another British TV series, 1971's The Persuaders, Moore was selected to replace Sean Connery in the James Bond films. His initial Bond effort was 1973's Live and Let Die, but the consensus (in which the actor heartily concurred) was that Moore didn't truly "grow" into the character until 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. Few of Moore's non-Bond movie appearances of the 1970s and 1980s were notably successful, save for an amusing part as a Jewish mama's boy who thinks he's Bond in Burt Reynolds' Cannonball Run (1981). Moore's last 007 film was 1985's A View to a Kill. In 1991, he was made a special representative of UNICEF, an organization with which he'd been active since the 1960s. Relegated mainly to a series of flops through the 1990s, Moore appeared in such efforts as The Quest (1996) and Spice World (1997) and gained most of his exposure that decade as a television talk show and documentary host. In early May of 2003, fans were dismayed to hear that Moore collapsed onstage during a Broadway performance of The Play That I Wrote. Rushed to a nearby hospital afer insisting on finishing his performance in the small role, reports noted that Moore's subsequent recovery seemed to be coming along smoothly. He lent his distinctive voice to family films such as Here Comes Peter Cottontail and Cats & Dogs, The Revenge of Kitty Galore. Moore died in 2017, at age 89.

Curt Jurgens (Actor) .. Karl Stromberg

Born: December 13, 1915
Died: June 18, 1982

Trivia: German actor Curd Jurgens worked as a journalist until his first wife, actress Louise Basler, persuaded him to take up acting. In 1935 he began appearing on the German stage and screen, and gradually increased his career status until 1944, when he was sent to a concentration camp at the order of Dr. Goebbels. After his release he continued to appear in German films, gaining international recognition with his work in The Devil's General (1955). Jurgens went on to be a leading star of the European stage and international films; onscreen he often played urbane villains, and sometimes was cast as a Nazi. Although he appeared in over 100 films, he considered himself primarily a stage actor. He directed a few films with limited success, and also wrote screenplays. Jurgens was married five times; one of his wives was actress Eva Bartok. He authored an autobiography, Sixty and Not Yet Wise.

Barbara Bach (Actor) .. Anya Amasova

Born: August 27, 1947
Birthplace: Queens, New York, United States

Trivia: Sensuous leading lady Barbara Bach began her film career in Italy in 1972. Her first English-language film was Wolf Larsen, a 1975 version of Jack London's The Sea Wolf. She became a pin-up and fold-out "fave" after co-starring in the 1977 James Bond adventure The Spy Who Loved Me. Barbara Bach is the second wife of Beatle Ringo Starr, with whom she appeared in the raucous prehistoric farce Caveman (1979).

Richard Kiel (Actor) .. Jaws

Born: September 13, 1939
Died: September 10, 2014
Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, United States

Trivia: We shouldn't say it, but...at nearly seven foot two, American actor Richard Kiel was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Making the cast-call rounds while working as a nightclub bouncer, Kiel began picking up bit roles in the early '60s. He was the misleadingly altruistic alien in the classic 1962 Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" (you'll remember that climactic line "It's a cookbook!") and was less prestigiously starred in that masterpiece of bad cinema, Eegah! (1962). Ambling through a series a tough-lug and town-bully roles, Kiel attained full stardom as the menacing, steel-dentured Jaws in the the 1977 James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me. So well-received was this appearance that the scriptwriters contrived to bring Jaws back from the dead in the next Bondfest, Moonraker (1979), wherein Kiel becomes a good guy before the end and even gets a girlfriend. In 1992, Richard Kiel turned producer/director (in addition to starring) with the appropriately titled The Giant of Thunder Mountain, a "four waller" which was released on a city-by-city basis. He played a memorable role in Happy Gilmore (1996), playing a fan of the title golfer and voiced a thug in Disney's animated film Tangled (2010). Kiel died in 2014, just days before his 74th birthday.

Caroline Munro (Actor) .. Naomi

Born: January 16, 1949
Birthplace: Windsor, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom

Trivia: Elected "Face of the Year" in her teens, sultry British brunette Caroline Munro is more famous for her below-the-neck attributes. Seldom appearing in films without one or all of her significant body parts-- cleavage, abdomen, hips--uncovered, Munro has been a most welcome decoration in such adventures as Casino Royale (1967) Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), At the Earth's Core (1976) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Not surprisingly, Munro has become a cult favorite, especially with imaginative teenaged boys; she was evidently less popular in those communities of the American South and Midwest that banned her alluring Noxema skin cream TV ads in the 1980s. Still going strong into the 1990s, Caroline Munro has recently played herself (who could ask for anything more?) in 1993's Night Owl, and as Mrs. Pignon in the medium-budget sleeper To Die For (1994).

Bernard Lee (Actor) .. M

Born: January 10, 1908
Died: January 16, 1981
Birthplace: Brentford, Middlesex, England

Trivia: Born into a theatrical family, British actor Bernard Lee first trod the boards at age six. Supporting himself as a fruit salesman, Lee attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, making his West End stage bow in 1928. In films from 1934, Lee showed up in dozens of bits and minor roles, his screen time increasing throughout the 1950s. He showed up prominently as the resident police inspector in several of the "Edgar Wallace" "B"-picture series of the early 1960s. In 1962, Lee was cast as M, the immediate superior to Secret Agent 007 James Bond, in Dr. No. Bernard Lee continued to portray M in all subsequent Bond endeavors, up to and including 1979's Moonraker; he also essayed the role in the 1967 Bond spin-off, Operation Kid Brother, which starred Sean Connery's younger brother Neil.

Walter Gotell (Actor) .. Gen. Gogol

Born: January 01, 1924
Died: May 05, 1997

Trivia: British character actor Walter Gotell spent most of his screen time as the "enemy." He was especially adept at portraying hissable Nazis in WWII dramas and equally odious KGB agents in Cold War films. His best-known role was Russian General Gogol in three of the James Bond epics: Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and View to a Kill. Walter Gotell remained active in films and TV throughout the 1990s, as sinister as ever in such works as Puppet Master IV (1991).

George Baker (Actor) .. Capt. Benson

Born: April 01, 1931
Birthplace: Varna

Trivia: Born in Bulgaria, George Baker nonetheless achieved prominence as a British actor, making his joint film and stage debuts in 1952. At home in avuncular roles, Baker made an impressive Reverend Charles Dodson in the 1965 British TV movie Alice. He was equally adept at authoritative characterizations, appearing in this capacity in two of the James Bond epics and as Emperor Tiberius in I Claudius (1957). In the late '80s, George Baker starred in a series of elaborate, 60-minute TV murder mysteries as the unflappable Chief Inspector Wexford.

Lois Maxwell (Actor) .. Miss Moneypenny

Born: February 14, 1927
Died: September 29, 2007

Trivia: Her real name just wouldn't do for a marquee in the Bible Belt, so Canadian-born actress Lois Hooker became Lois Maxwell when she arrived in Hollywood. Maxwell appeared in one British picture and a handful of American programmers before she sought out better opportunities in the Italian film industry. She returned to Britain as a second lead and character actress in 1956. In 1970, Maxwell co-starred in the Canadian TV series Adventures in Rainbow County. Lois Maxwell is best remembered for her appearances as the coolly efficient, subtly predatory Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films produced between 1962 and 1985 -- at least until she was unceremoniously dumped in favor of a younger actress for the two Timothy Dalton Bond epics of the late 1980s. Maxwell died at age 80 in September 2007.

Shane Rimmer (Actor) .. Capt. Carter

Born: May 28, 1929

Bryan Marshall (Actor) .. Commander Talbot

Born: May 19, 1938

Trivia: British lead and supporting actor, onscreen from the '60s.

Michael Billington (Actor) .. Sergei

Born: December 24, 1941
Died: June 03, 2005
Birthplace: Blackburn, Lancashire

Olga Bisera (Actor) .. Felica

Born: May 26, 1949

Edward De Souza (Actor) .. Sheik Hosein

Born: September 04, 1932

Vernon Dobtcheff (Actor) .. Max Kalba

Valerie Leon (Actor) .. Hotel Receptionist

Born: November 12, 1943

Geoffrey Keen (Actor) .. Verteidigungsminister

Born: January 01, 1918

Trivia: The son of prominent stage actor Malcolm Keen, London-born Geoffrey Keen proved his talent in his own right when he won the Gold Medal at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. On stage from 1932 and in films from 1946, Keen established himself as one of the premiere purveyors of cold-edged corporate types. If a producer wanted a dryly sarcastic executive or intimidating attorney, Keen was the man. In this vein, Geoffrey Keen was the ideal replacement for the late Bernard Lee as "M" in the James Bond films, essaying the role in such Bond escapades as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and The Living Daylights (1987).

Sydney Tafler (Actor) .. Liparus Captain

Born: January 01, 1916
Died: November 08, 1979

Trivia: A handy man to have around in a crime film, British actor Sydney Tafler specialized in tough gang-member and tipster types in the '50s. On stage from 1936 and in films from 1942 (The Young Mr. Pitt), Tafler's busiest screen years were 1949 through 1960, when virtually every other British film took place at night on a seedy, rainswept side street. The actor smoked cigarettes and talked from the side of his mouth through in such films as Passport to Pimlico (1949), Mystery Junction (1951) and The Saint's Girl Friday (1954), enjoying the occasional larger, subtler role in films like Carve Her Name with Pride (1955). In 1969 Tafler was still menacing any and all by saying nary a word in the filmization of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party (1969). Sydney Tafler's final film role was in a captain's uniform (could it have been a disguise to elude the coppers?) in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Nadim Sawalha (Actor) .. Fekkesh

Born: September 09, 1935

Trivia: Supporting actor Nadim Sawalha has worked steadily on British television and in feature films since his screen debut playing a small role in A Touch of Class (1973). Born in India, Sawalha has spent his entire career in English-language films and is usually cast as excitable service people in shops, hotels, and museums.

Sue Vanner (Actor) .. The Log Cabin Girl

Eva Reuber-Staier (Actor) .. Rubelvitch

Robert Brown (Actor) .. Adm. Hargreaves

Born: November 12, 1918

Trivia: Beefy British character actor Robert Brown should not be confused with the actor of the same name who starred in TV's Here Come the Brides (1968-1969), nor with film editor Robert N. "Toby" Brown. In films from 1955's Helen of Troy, Brown specialized in roughneck costume roles, such as the Chief of Rowers in Ben-Hur (1959) and Talbot in Billy Budd (1962). In the 1957 Roger Moore TV series Ivanhoe, Brown was appropriately cast as Gurth. After playing Admiral Hargreaves in the 1977 James Bond entry The Spy Who Loved Me, Robert Brown succeeded Bernard Lee as Bond's immediate superior "M", essaying the role for the first time in Octopussy (1983) and for the last time in A View to a Kill (1989).

Marilyn Galsworthy (Actor) .. Stromberg's Assistant

Milton Reid (Actor) .. Sandor

Born: January 01, 1917

Cyril Shaps (Actor) .. Bechmann

Born: October 13, 1923
Died: January 01, 2003
Birthplace: Highbury, London

Milo Sperber (Actor) .. Markovitz

Born: March 20, 1911
Died: December 22, 1992

Albert Moses (Actor) .. Barman

Born: January 01, 1937

Rafiq Anwar (Actor) .. Cairo Club Waiter

Felicity York (Actor) .. Arab Beauty

Dawn Rodrigues (Actor) .. Arab Beauty

Anika Pavel (Actor) .. Arab Beauty

Jill Goodall (Actor) .. Arab Beauty

Yasher Adem (Actor)

George Roubicek (Actor)

Born: May 25, 1935

Kim Fortune (Actor)

Ray Hassett (Actor)

Bob Sherman (Actor)

Born: November 16, 1940

Christopher Muncke (Actor)

Doyle Richmond (Actor)

Murray Salem (Actor)

Born: January 12, 1950

John Truscott (Actor)

Born: February 23, 1936

Peter Whitman (Actor)

Born: December 22, 1947
Died: October 01, 1995

Trivia: Canada-born actor Peter Whitman was best known in his adopted country of Great Britain for his work in stage musicals. He moved to England and started out on BBC radio in 1968. Whitman made his screen debut in the mid-'70s and went on to play supporting roles in several films, including Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), and Scandalous (1984).

Vincent Marzello (Actor)

Nicholas Campbell (Actor)

Born: March 24, 1952
Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Trivia: An able "action player," Canadian actor Nicholas Campbell was all action and no lines in his bit roles in A Bridge too Far (1975), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Campbell was third-billed as Sniffer in the 1985 Tatum O'Neal/Irene Cara vehicle A Certain Fury, and was "adult relief" in the bizarre 1987 street-gang musical Knights of the City. Campbell's series TV gigs include the leading roles of investigative reporter Nick Fox on The Insiders (1986) and private eye Mike Devitt on the Canadian-filmed Diamonds (1987). In 1983 Campbell starred as the enigmatic, expository title character on the HBO anthology series The Hitchhiker.

Ray Evans (Actor)

Born: February 14, 1915
Died: February 15, 2007

Trivia: American lyricist Ray Evans is best known for his collaboration with composer Jay Livingston. Together, they penned many catchy tunes for stage, screen and television. Some of these songs, such as "Tammy," and "Silver Bells" have become American standards. They won Oscars in 1948 for "Buttons and Bows" (from Paleface), "Mona Lisa" (from Captain Carey USA, 1950) and "Que Sera Sera" (from The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956). Evans met Livingston while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. Before becoming a lyricist, Evans worked as a musician on cruise ships.

Anthony Forrest (Actor)

Born: July 25, 1951

Garrick Hagon (Actor)

Born: September 27, 1939

Ray Jewers (Actor)

Born: October 15, 1945

George Malaby (Actor)

Anthony Pullen (Actor)

Born: January 07, 1952

Robert Sheedy (Actor)

Don Staiton (Actor)

Born: February 11, 1934

Eric Stine (Actor)

Stephen Temperley (Actor)

Born: July 29, 1949

Dean Warwick (Actor)

Michael Howarth (Actor)

Barry Andrews (Actor)

Trivia: Lead actor, onscreen from 1969. He often appears in horror movies.

Kevin McNally (Actor)

Born: April 27, 1956
Birthplace: Bristol, England

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscreen from the '80s.

Jeremy Bulloch (Actor)

Born: February 16, 1945

Sean Bury (Actor)

Born: August 15, 1954

John Sarbutt (Actor)

David Auker (Actor)

Dennis Blanch (Actor)

Born: February 04, 1947

Keith Buckley (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1941

Trivia: Keith Buckley was a young British utility actor who came into films from the stage in the mid 1960s. He was seen in such costume dramas as King and Country (1964), Alfred the Great (1968) and Attack on the Iron Coast (1968). International exposure came to Buckley with such blockbusters as The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and The Eagle Has Landed (1977). In 1967, the actor was a regular on the British TV anthology Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle; four years later, he played Henry Morgan Stanley (of "Stanley and Livingstone" fame) on the BBC miniseries Search for the Nile, which was networkcast in America in early 1972. Still on call in the 1980s, Keith Buckley showed up with third billing (right behind Michael Caine and Sigourney Weaver) as "Hugo Van Arkaday" in the British/American coproduction Half Moon Street (1986).

Jonathan Bury (Actor)

Nick Ellsworth (Actor)

Tom Gerrard (Actor)

Kazol Michalski (Actor)

Keith Morris (Actor) .. HMS Ranger

John Salthouse (Actor)

Born: June 16, 1951

Lenny Rabin (Actor)

Irvin Allen (Actor)

Peter Ensor (Actor)

The Egyptian Folklore Group (Actor)

Desmond Llewelyn (Actor) .. "Q"

Born: September 12, 1914
Died: December 19, 1999

Trivia: "Bond -- James Bond," would have been nothing without Llewelyn -- Desmond Llewelyn. Llewelyn played the tweedy technophile who invented the bizarre gadgetry 007 used to thwart the sinister machinations of Dr. No, Goldfinger, and other dastardly villains in 17 Bond movies. Llewelyn's character was named Geoffrey Boothroyd, but no one in the Bond movies called him that. Instead, they called him "Q," short for "quartermaster." Like an army quartermaster who equips troops, Q equipped Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and other Bonds with the supplies of the espionage trade. Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn was born in South Wales on September 12, 1914, the son of a Welsh coal-mining engineer. Interested in acting at an early age, he first studied accounting and law enforcement before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Arts at age 20. After joining the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at the onset of World War II, he fought in France as a second lieutenant and fell into enemy hands after a two-day battle with a German panzer division. He spent the next five years in German POW camps at Rottenburg, Laufen, and Warburg. He once tried to tunnel his way to freedom, but failed. Llewelyn returned to acting and began his film career in 1950 with a part in They Were Not Divided, then went on to appear in 31 other films, including the Bond films. Among the non-Bond films he appeared in, sometimes in quite minor roles, were Cleopatra (1963), Silent Playground (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Merlin (1992), and Taboo (1997). Between 1963 and the year of his death, 1999, he played in all but two of the Bond films -- more than any of the actors who starred as James Bond, including Connery, Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. As Q, Llewelyn was always irascible and cranky in response to 007's carefree nonchalance. Like a professor with a flippant student, he scolded Bond to pay attention and tutored his charge in the use of "Q toys," as his booby-trapped marvels came to be known. Still, Q was a master of mischief, a gray-haired boy who concocted an endless variety of spy paraphernalia and bizarre weapons, like the Rolex watch that could alter the path of a speeding bullet; the pen grenade that, with three clicks of a button, could be set to detonate in four seconds; the key ring that could open almost any lock in the world, release nerve gas, or simply explode; and the Lotus sports car that doubled as a submarine, complete with torpedoes and surface-to-air missiles.In real life, Llewelyn was all thumbs when it came to technology, and he was kind and gentle to all he encountered. On the movie set, his co-workers and other fans crowded around to observe when it came time for him to introduce his new marvel to the Bond de jour, and he spent as long as it took to sign autographs for anyone who wanted one. Ironically, it was an automobile, a blue Renault Megane, that killed Llewelyn. He died in a hospital shortly after the Renault collided with another car near Firle in East Sussex, England, on December 19, 1999. The crash site was not far from his home, Bexhill-on-Sea, south of London. He was survived by his wife Pamela, whom he married in 1938, and two sons. His son Ivor told Britain's Sky Television, "He was a kind, very lovable man, and as a father he was great."

Charles Gray (Actor)

Lewis Gilbert (Actor)

Born: March 06, 1920

Trivia: Lewis Gilbert started out as a child actor on the London stage and in British silent films. Making his last on-camera appearance in The Divorce of Lady X (1938), Gilbert remained in the movie industry as an assistant director. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Air Corps Film Unit, receiving his first opportunity to direct. After a string of documentaries, he helmed his first dramatic feature, The Ballerina (1947). His subsequent films include the superior wartime dramas Carve Her Name with Pride (1957) and Sink the Bismarck (1960), the tender coming-of-age study Loss of Innocence (1961) and the cynical sex seriocomedy Alfie (1967). He also helmed three James Bond epics, one with Connery (1967's You Only Live Twice) and two above-average Roger Moore efforts (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker). The best of Lewis Gilbert's more recent films include a brace of adaptations of Willy Russell stage plays, Educating Rita (1983) and Shirley Valentine (1989).

Garick Hagon (Actor)

5:00 pm - 8:00 pm, Friday, November 28 on Ovation Arts Network ()