Miss Moneypenny, The Bond Girl Who Kept James Bond In Line, Dies At 80

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Miss Moneypenny, the Bond girl who kept 007 in line, dies at 80

by IAN MARKHAM-SMITH

Last updated at 20:58pm on 30th September 2007

Lois Maxwell, the unglamorous but decidedly flirtatious Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, has died in Australia at the age of 80.

The actress - who played the secretary of Bond's spy chief M - starred alongside Sir Sean Connery in the first 007 movie, Dr No, in 1962.


Lois Maxwell died at the weekend aged 80

She made her last appearance in 1985 in A View To A Kill with Sir Roger Moore. By then, despite definitely being no Bond Babe, she had won millions of male fans worldwide.

Only Desmond Llewelyn, who played gadget man Q 17 times before his death in 1999, starred in more 007 films.


In 1977, Maxwell starred as Miss Moneypenny with Roger Moore in the Spy Who Loved Me

Her attempts as Moneypenny to woo Bond led nowhere, because the secret agent preferred the company of more exotic women.

She did however manage to keep him out of trouble on numerous occasions. Landing the role was a turning-point in Miss Maxwell's career.

"I had a husband who was desperately ill, with two small children and no money, so I called producers I had worked with before and said, 'Help me'," she recalled.

Terence Young, who directed Dr No, offered her two roles and she chose Moneypenny, telling him not to "put my hair in a bun and hornrimmed glasses on me".


Lois Maxwell appeared in 14 Bond films including Dr No in 1962

Sir Roger, who studied with Miss Maxwell at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1944, said she had been his "lucky token".

He added: "She will certainly be missed by me, and I'm sure by millions of fans around the world. She was always fun and she was wonderful to be with. It was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M. She would have been wonderful. Lois was wonderful, absolutely perfect casting.

"It was a great pity that after I moved out of Bond, that they didn't take her on to continue in the Timothy Dalton films.

"She had a tremendous sense of humour. She used to sing dirty songs from the Canadian women's army, in which she'd served.

"I'm afraid she got typecast as Miss Moneypenny - that's what producers do.

"We'd done a number of episodes of The Saint and The Persuaders together, so over the past 60 years I've seen a great deal of her."

Asked in 2005 to name her favourite Bond movie, Miss Maxwell chose On Her Majesty's Secret Service, George Lazenby's sole outing as 007.


In Thunderball in 1965 Lois appeared with Sean Connery as Bond

She was born Lois Hooker in Ontario, Canada, in 1927 and came to Britain with the entertainment corps of the Canadian army at the age of 15.

She later moved to Hollywood and in 1947 picked up a best newcomer Golden Globe for her part in the Shirley Temple comedy That Hagen Girl.

In one photo-shoot, she posed with Marilyn Monroe, another up-and-coming actress. Miss Maxwell also appeared in Bedtime for Bonzo with Ronald Reagan.

After a spell working in Italy, she returned to Britain in the mid-1950s.

She married Peter Churchill Marriott in 1957 and they stayed together until his death in 1973. The couple had two children.

She was 58 when she last played Miss Moneypenny and was succeeded in the role by Caroline Bliss and later Samantha Bond.

Before her death in Fremantle on Saturday, Miss Maxwell had been working on her autobiography.

She had moved to Western Australia because her son and his family are based there.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1773