Lois Maxwell

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Lois Maxwell (born February 14, 1927 in Kitchener , Ontario , Canada ; † September 29, 2007 in Fremantle , Western Australia , Australia ; real name Lois Hooker ) was a Canadian actress who was mainly known through her role as " Miss Moneypenny " in became known in numerous James Bond films.

life and career

Maxwell grew up in Canada as the daughter of a teacher and a nurse. She ran away from home in 1942 at the age of 15 to join the army in World War II . Although she was actually too young for military service, she managed to get accepted into the Royal Canadian Army . As a soldier , she was assigned to the Army Entertainment Corps , with whom she performed music and dance numbers in Europe. When the troop reached London it was revealed that they were too young. To avoid being sent back to Canada, Maxwell enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She studied here with Roger Moore .

At the age of 20 she traveled to Hollywood , got various engagements and even won the Golden Globe for “ Best New Actress ” for her role in the Shirley Temple comedy That Hagen Girl (1947), in which she played alongside Ronald Reagan . In a photo series for Life Magazine , Maxwell stood alongside another rising star, Marilyn Monroe .

After returning to Europe, Maxwell lived in Rome for five years. During a trip to Paris she met her future husband Peter Marriott. They married in 1957 and moved to London together, where their daughter Melina was born in 1958 and their son Christian was born in 1959.

Your role as Miss Moneypenny

In 1962 she first played the role of Miss Moneypenny , with whom she became known. In the first film in the Bond series, she is the chief secretary of M , the head of the British secret service MI6 , in whose anteroom she sits. Moneypenny is very interested in a rendezvous, even a marriage, with James Bond. Your relationship with the secret agent is marked by violent flirtations, which he - before he sets off on his next assignment - playfully answered, but never seriously answered. A romance between the two does not develop, despite Bond's obviously pronounced penchant for women. Although the secret agent keeps complimenting her, he explains that he cannot carry out Moneypenny because he would be charged with "misuse of government property."

Between 1962 and 1985 Maxwell - between the ages of 35 and 58 - played Miss Moneypenny a total of 14 times in all official Bond films. Although her appearances only lasted a few minutes, she gained a high degree of popularity through the Moneypenny role. Maxwell was the only person who appeared in each of the first 14 Bond films. The actress sporadically took on minor roles in TV series, but was only identified by the audience with the character of Miss Moneypenny .

Although Moneypenny already introduced a new assistant in Octopussy (1983) with Miss Penelope Smallbone , played by Michaela Clavell , in 1985 she was again at the side of Roger Moore of the same age in In the Face of Death . When Moore was replaced by Timothy Dalton, who was around 20 years her junior, in the following Bond film, The Living Daylights , her time as Miss Moneypenny was over , despite Maxwell's continued interest in the role . She was replaced by Caroline Bliss in the two following films starring Timothy Dalton . Later, in the films with Pierce Brosnan as Bond, Samantha Bond took over the role.

Further career

During the 1960s, Maxwell also appeared in various Canadian and British television series, such as Mit Schirm, Charme und Melon , UFO , Stingray , Secret Mission for John Drake , Simon Templar , Adventure in Rainbow Land , Department S and The 2 . After the death of her husband in the early 1970s, Maxwell returned to Canada and wrote articles for the Toronto Sun newspaper under the pseudonym Miss Moneypenny . In 1994 she moved back to England and moved to an estate in Frome ( Somerset ). She played her last role in 2001 in the film The Fourth Angel .

Lois Maxwell starred in a total of around 50 feature films and television productions, but none of these appearances achieved the same popularity as her role in the James Bond series. At the end of her career she lived in Canada, Switzerland and England. In 2001 she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She then moved to Western Australia, where she lived with her son until her death. She died of heart failure on the evening of September 29, 2007.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Lois Maxwell  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bond star Lois Maxwell dies at 80 , article on BBC News
personal data
SURNAME Maxwell, Lois
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hooker, Lois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Kitchener , Ontario , Canada
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 2007
Place of death Fremantle , Western Australia , Australia