Roger Moore charms UNICEF conference
By Curtis Rush for Toronto Star, 22 Feb 2006

Only Sir Roger Moore (a.k.a. James Bond) would know how to get a roomful of people laughing at a news conference called to report on the plight of dying children worldwide.

"The name's Moore," the Bond actor said dryly as he stepped up to the microphone, causing ripples of laughter to spread among members of UNICEF Canada and the media. "It used to be Bond, but that was when I had a lot of hair and I didn't wear glasses, and I was about 10 stone lighter."

Witty, charming and very down to earth.

But after all, he's the UNICEF goodwill ambassador and he was very willing to spread the goodwill today, providing interview after interview -- mostly about his Bond role.

Moore is so self-effacing he says doesn't even like the “Sir” title attached to his name,"unless I'm talking to an inferior," he jousted playfully to a reporter.

Actually, the UNICEF goodwill ambassador is looking fit and healthy, although years removed from being the cool and debonair British secret agent.

Although his eyes are wrinkled, his freckled and tanned face doesn't look that of a 78-year-old man.

He looks to be aging gracefully, as James Bond would. And he still embraces having done the part and for being known as "Bond."

"Sean (Connery) has always resented it. But I'm quite happy," he said before lining up another quip.

"It's better to be known for that than robbing a bank."

He goes to movies, but not to Bond movies because he doesn't like questions about the modern Bond characters. If he was honest and didn't like their work, he would be called bitter. So he doesn't bother to go.

He doesn't act much any more, preferring instead to work on documentaries, the latest on a biblical story to be shot in Malta.

This is not to say he still doesn't enjoy the trappings of the Bond-role success. He and his fourth wife, Kristina, have two homes - one in Monaco and another in the hills on the eastern part of Switzerland.

He doesn't drink martinis anymore, but when he did he liked gin martinis, not vodka. "You make it with a little lemon twist, put it in the deep freeze, put your glass in the deep freeze, and when it comes out nice it's nice and frosty."

Also, the gin is important. Tanqueray only, he said.

He still loves cars. He drives a Volvo XC90, which is good in the snow, and the latest-model Mercedes.

But a big part of his life is with UNICEF.

Today, UNICEF Canada presented its 50th anniversary report showing that while more children are surviving than 50 years ago, 29,000 children under 5 are dying every day from illnesses like pneumonia that are very treatable.

The Canadian government has stepped up to help the cause with the announcement today by Josée Verner, Minister of International Co-operation, of $46.5 million in aid.

Sir Roger Moore, who has been the official goodwill ambassador of UNICEF since 1991, has travelled to the hardest-hit areas to see the progress that UNICEF is making with children.

He said he is "always humbled" by the work that is being done.

Much progress has been done, according to Nigel Fisher, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada.

In 1955, he said, the harsh reality was that 210 out of every 1,000 children born would die before reaching the age of 5. Today, that number has been decreased to 79.

Fisher added that 3 million more children survived in the year 2000 than in 1990, an 11 per cent decrease in the under-5 mortality rate in that decade alone.

However, rates of mortality in 14 countries, nine in sub-Saharan Africa, are rising, due mostly to the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS.

And globally, 10.6 million children are dying from preventable causes every year. Pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections kill about 2 million children every year, making it the leading cause of death of children under 5.

The solution, Fisher said, is to increase the efforts so that mass immunization programs and the distribution of vitamin A tablets can help these children.

Moore will carry his message to Quebec City this weekend for a gala event partly in support of UNICEF Canada.

The event will also bring back Bond memories for the British actor.

It was recently learned that one of the most important early producers of the Bond series, Harry Saltzman, was born in Sherbrooke, Que.

When his daughter, Hilary, found out by accident (she thought he was born in Saint John, N.B., as did others), she put together efforts to spotlight the contribution of the late Saltzman and to raise funds for the 7th edition of the 3 Americas Film Festival in Quebec City at the end of March, as well as UNICEF.

Along with free Bond movies all weekend, $2,000 tickets are being sold to have dinner with Sir Roger Moore on Friday and there is a gala event for $60 a piece on Saturday, with a who's who list of former Bond actors and singers in attendance.

© Toronto Star, 2006

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