Lois Maxwell, James Bond's Miss Moneypenny, dies in WA

Lois Maxwell, James Bond's Miss Moneypenny, dies in WA By Paige Taylor http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22510531-5012990,00.html October 01, 2007 05:36am LOIS Maxwell, the original Miss Moneypenny who starred in 14 James Bond films, has died in Perth aged 80. Maxwell starred alongside Sean Connery in the first Bond movie, Dr No, in 1962 and appeared in films starring the fictional super spy until 1985, when she starred with Roger Moore in A View to a Kill. Since 2005, Maxwell lived in the southern Perth suburb of Melville with her son Christian and his family, devoting her time and public appearance fees to the Fremantle Hospital Medical Research Foundation. Maxwell was born in Ontario, Canada, and in recent years was a columnist for the Toronto Sun. Her acting career took off in 1948 when she won the Golden Globe for most promising newcomer for her role alongside Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in That Hagen Girl. Her last film role was in the 2001 thriller The Fourth Angel. In the Bond films, Moneypenny, as secretary to Bond's chief M, has a flirtatious relationship with the spy, evidently attracted to him but never succumbing to his advances. It was a role to which Maxwell gave a sexual edge that is missing in Ian Fleming's novels, on which the films are based. Maxwell, known for her sassy humour, said Connery was her favourite James Bond. "Sean Connery was the best kisser. I thought about him often during the day and sometimes at night," she told assembled guests at last year's West Australian media ball. Maxwell gave her seal of approval to the latest Bond movie, Casino Royale, and to Englishman Daniel Craig. "He looks dangerous," Maxwell told The Age last December. "He has a very good voice and, like my late husband, a very chewable lower lip." She died in Fremantle Hospital on Saturday after suffering poor health in recent months. Moore told the BBC last night that Maxwell "was a very fine actress and had a great sense of humour". "It was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M," he said. "She would have been a wonderful M." The Australian