BoatPI
09-30-2007, 08:46 AM
Canadian-born "Miss Moneypenny" dies
CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007
Lois Maxwell, known to millions around the world for her role in over a dozen James Bond films as Miss Moneypenny, died Saturday of cancer. The Golden Globe-winning Canadian actress was 80.
Born in Kitchener in 1927, Lois Hooker ran away from home at age fifteen to join the military. She enrolled in in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London after being discharged because of her age. She changed her last name and came to Hollywood in 1947, where she hoped to find work acting. Within a year, she had won a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for her role alongside Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in the much-maligned That Hagen Girl.
Her turn as Moneypenny, part-time romantic interest of James Bond and full-time secretary to his boss, M, in Dr. No began what would become one of the enduring roles in film history. Between 1962 and 1985, Maxwell appeared in 14 consecutive Bond films, always in scenes featuring strong sexual tension between Moneypenny and Bond. Maxwell outlasted three 007s (Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and one-off George Lazenby). Only Desmond Llewelyn's portrayal of Q would last longer until his death in 1999.
Lois Maxwell playing Miss Moneypenny in Goldfinger.
MGM
*Maxwell wrote a popular column under the Moneypenny pseudonym for the Toronto Sun after her husband died of a heart attack in 1973. She acted rarely after A View to a Kill, and retired to England in 1994. She last acted opposite Forest Whitaker and Jeremy Irons in The Fourth Angel from 2001.
© CanWest News Service 2007
CanWest News Service
Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007
Lois Maxwell, known to millions around the world for her role in over a dozen James Bond films as Miss Moneypenny, died Saturday of cancer. The Golden Globe-winning Canadian actress was 80.
Born in Kitchener in 1927, Lois Hooker ran away from home at age fifteen to join the military. She enrolled in in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London after being discharged because of her age. She changed her last name and came to Hollywood in 1947, where she hoped to find work acting. Within a year, she had won a Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for her role alongside Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in the much-maligned That Hagen Girl.
Her turn as Moneypenny, part-time romantic interest of James Bond and full-time secretary to his boss, M, in Dr. No began what would become one of the enduring roles in film history. Between 1962 and 1985, Maxwell appeared in 14 consecutive Bond films, always in scenes featuring strong sexual tension between Moneypenny and Bond. Maxwell outlasted three 007s (Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and one-off George Lazenby). Only Desmond Llewelyn's portrayal of Q would last longer until his death in 1999.
Lois Maxwell playing Miss Moneypenny in Goldfinger.
MGM
*Maxwell wrote a popular column under the Moneypenny pseudonym for the Toronto Sun after her husband died of a heart attack in 1973. She acted rarely after A View to a Kill, and retired to England in 1994. She last acted opposite Forest Whitaker and Jeremy Irons in The Fourth Angel from 2001.
© CanWest News Service 2007