Man tells charming story of meeting ‘tremendous’ Roger Moore

The world woke to the sad news yesterday that acclaimed James Bond Actor Sir Roger Moore had died aged 89. However, amongst the sadness, an absolute gem of a story about the legendary actor has come to the surface, tweeted by a young man who was excited to meet James Bond for the first time in an airport, aged seven. 

Read more: James Bond actor Sir Roger Moore has died

This truly wonderful Roger story from @marchaynes is soothing my aching soul. 😪 pic.twitter.com/DM7zhybLrs

— John Rain 🥇 (@ItsJohnRain) May 23, 2017

The story, as told by Marc Haynes goes as follows. 

“As a seven year old in about 1983, in the days before First Class lounges at airports, I was with my granddad in Nice Airport and saw Roger Moore sitting at the departure gate, reading a paper,” he began. 

Haynes continued the story, telling how he’d told his grandfather who didn’t know of the actor that he’d just seen James Bond, and went over for an autograph. 

“As charming as you’d expect, Roger asks my name and duly signs the back of my plane ticket, a fulsome note of best wishes. I’m ecstatic, but as we head back to our seats, I glance down at the signature. It’s hard to decipher, but it definitely doesn’t say ‘James Bond’.”

With no idea who ‘Roger Moore’ is, Haynes was so disappointed that his grandfather took the ticket back to Moore saying “he says you’ve signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond.”

“Roger Moore’s face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to me, ‘I have to sign my name as ‘Roger Moore’ because otherwise…Blofeld might find out I was here.’ He asked me not to tell anyone that I’d just seen James Bond, and he thanked me for keeping his secret.

“I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My granddad asked me if he’d signed ‘James Bond.’ No, I said. I’d got it wrong. I was working with James Bond now.”

The delightful story of the seven-year-old co-conspirator of James Bond doesn’t end there though. Haynes went on to talk about the second time her met Moore, when he worked on a project with UNICEF for which Moore was an ambassador, and met the evidently friendly star again. 

“I told him in passing the story of when I met him in Nice airport. He was happy to hear it, and he had a chuckle and said ‘Well, I don’t remember but I’m glad you got to meet James Bond.’

“And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car – but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, ‘Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn’t say anything in there, because those cameramen – any one of them could be working for Blofeld.’

“I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at seven. What a tremendous man.”

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