Roger Moore - One Lucky Bastard: Tales from Tinseltown

An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 2014 Sir Roger Moore

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

First published in Great Britain in 2014 as Last Man Standing by Michael OMara Books Limited

First published in the USA in 2014 by Lyons Press

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN 978-1-4930-0797-4 (hardcover)

eISBN 978-1-4930-1558-0 (eBook)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Contents

CHAPTER 1
The Funand FiestyLeading Ladies

CHAPTER 2
The Pinewood Years

CHAPTER 3
Stage-struck

CHAPTER 4
On-Set Tales

CHAPTER 5
The Good Guys (and a Few Rascals)

CHAPTER 6
The Rat Pack

CHAPTER 7
The Creative Geniuses

CHAPTER 8
The Producers

FOREWORD

W hen I started out writing this tome, I had the idea of calling it One Lucky Bastard* because thats what I feel I certainly am. But the b-word was thought to be a little too risqu and wouldnt look good on the bookshop shelves, so I thought Id better come up with another title that would describe, perhaps more accurately, what I hope you will find to be an interesting, amusing, and moving collection of memories and stories about friends, colleagues, and loved ones Ive encountered in my eighty-odd years.

* The US edition retains this title. The British edition is titled Last Man Standing.

Lana Turner, whom I had the greatest pleasure of working with in Hollywood, told me her pet hatred was another actress named Linda Christian, namely because when Lana was engaged to Tyrone Power, Linda found out where he was going to stay in Rome while working on a film and booked herself into a room next to his... and the rest was history.

Why am I telling you this? Well, a while later, Linda and Edmund Purdomwho was under contract at MGM at the same time as mestarted a big affair and to complicate matters further, Linda found herself in the center of a rather sticky situation regarding another past affair, this time with a wealthy industrialist who had presented her with expensive jewels and precious diamonds that his family now wanted back. Linda felt she should have some recompense for her trouble, and when the day for a changeover of cash for jewels was set, she asked me to accompany her and Edmund, feeling that because I was a fairly athletic and fit young man, I would scare off any unwanted intervention.

A year or two later, I was offered a TV play with Linda, and it was quite the worst script Id ever read. Though the stage directions made it very clear why Linda was so interested: In the first scene, Linda makes her entrance and her beautiful hair is held back behind her ears...

Scene two: Linda comes in with her beautiful hair and dress hanging over her shoulder and looks even more lovely than before...

This went on, and on. Vanity was obviously in play.

But the one thing I remember from the script was the description and explanation of death: When one dies one has actually just gone into another room; we know youre in there but dont have the key to get in.

That line has always stuck in my mind, and now being one of the last men standing Im finding that a great many of my friends are in the next room. I dont wish to be morbid, nor want to write a collection of obituaries, but I do write about quite a few of my friends in the past tense... but dont feel depressed, dear reader, feel happy that weve had these wonderful characters in our lives, as I certainly do. Frank Sinatra used to say, Whos going to be left to turn the light off?

Hopefully, itll be me!