007 star pays tribute to Maxwell

Lois Maxwell and Sir Roger Moore had been friends since the 1940s

Actress Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, has died in Australia aged 80. Bond star Sir Roger Moore, who had known her for more than 60 years, spoke to the BBC about his friend and co-star.

I'd known Lois from the beginning of my acting career, we were both drama students at Rada in 1944 and 1945.

We first played opposite each other in Pride and Prejudice. I was Darcy, she was Elizabeth. She was a very fine actress with a great sense of humour.

I think it was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M. She would have been a wonderful M.

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 sort-of typecast as Miss Moneypenny, that's what producers do, unfortunately Sir Roger Moore

We'd done a number of episodes of The Saint and The Persuaders together, so over the past 60 years I'd seen a great deal of her. But unfortunately, not over the last couple of years.

She had a quite a wide range of parts before she went into the Bond franchise. I'm afraid she got sort of typecast as Miss Moneypenny, that's what producers do, unfortunately, they put people in categories, they don't seem to move people out of them.

At the National Movie Awards, I presented an award to [Bond producers] Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. It's a pity the timing was so bad, we really could have given her a tribute then.

Sir Roger Moore was talking to BBC News 24 and to Radio 5 Live's Worricker on Sunday programme.