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News
Goodbye, Ms. Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell Passes Away at 80
Best known for her supporting role in 14 James Bond adventures.
by Sara Schieron | October 01, 2007
Discuss Article
Lois Maxwell, best known for playing Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise, passed away at Freemantle Hospital in Perth, Australia. She was 80.

Before playing the double-entendre-dropping secretary to "M" at Scotland Yard, Maxwell was born Lois Hooker in 1927, in Ontario Canada. By the age of 15 she was performing on radio with the Canadian Army's Entertainment Corps.

Maxwell won a Golden Globe for playing Julia Kane in the Shirley Temple vehicle That Hagen Girl in 1947. According to IMDB, this was only her third appearance in a feature film.

Bond actor Roger Moore had been friends with Maxwell from their days at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (class of 1944). Moore told BBC radio that "She was always fun and she was wonderful to be with." According to Moore, Maxwell was suffering from cancer.

Maxwell acted and starred in dozens of European and North American films before appearing 14 times in the Bond series. She began her role as Moneypenny with the first Bond feature Dr. No in 1963. There she began the ongoing, if unrequited, flirtation with Bond until 1985's A View to a Kill. Two years later, the next Bond film The Living Daylights featured a new Bond (Timothy Dalton) and new Moneypenny, Caroline Bliss (then 26).

Though Maxwell performed in a myriad of TV shows and films, including Kubrick's Lolita and Robert Wise's The Haunting, her iconic and pithy asides with Ian Fleming's swinging anti-hero stood out and for more reasons than mere chemistry. Maxwell's upper-class distance to the 1960s player signaled a tension between traditional values and the sexual politics of "swinging London;" an era and a politic Bond portrays in a way that's smashingly glamorous. Moneypenny held out for a rock and usually wore pearls, but she had her bit of fun too and so was a model of compromise in an era that, if we believe our movies, was swimming with division. Cultural clashes aside, Moneypenny provided more than tea service.

Sources:
Variety
IMDB
Mi6.co.uk

Related Items
Movie: Dr. No
The Living Daylights
A View to a Kill
Celeb: Timothy Dalton
Lois Maxwell
Roger Moore
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Comments (1-12 of 12 posts) | Reply
~*Admiral Snowstorm*~
~*Admiral Snowstorm*~ writes:
on Oct 01 2007 02:23 PM

Funny, I only just started watching James Bond movies a few months ago. Had I not, I wouldn't even know who this woman was.

Now that I do, though, I bid her a fond farewell. Although she technically never did anything in the James Bond movies, she was always funny for the short amount of time she was onscreen. Goodbye Lois, rest in peace.


(Reply to this)
JpPrewitt789
JpPrewitt789 writes:
on Oct 01 2007 02:39 PM

RIP

(Reply to this)
Mr. Kong
Mr. Kong writes:
on Oct 01 2007 02:41 PM

She will be missed. RIP

(Reply to this)
photosuperstar
photosuperstar writes:
on Oct 01 2007 03:36 PM

God bless you Mrs. Moneypenny. RIP.

(Reply to this)
artdude102
artdude102 writes:
on Oct 01 2007 04:54 PM

Goodnight Ms Moneypenny.

(Reply to this)
IMAmoose24
IMAmoose24 writes:
on Oct 01 2007 07:24 PM

My respects go to her and her family.

(Reply to this)
arendr
arendr writes:
on Oct 01 2007 07:48 PM

Moneypenny was always the best female character in James Bond because of the "Mulder/Scully" sexual tension. Best wishes to her family.

(Reply to this)
Daniel Aaron
Daniel Aaron writes:
on Oct 02 2007 12:16 AM

Ms' Money Penny was a beutiful lady, she knew how to handle James.. God bless Ma'am

(Reply to this)
vader_of_vjun
vader_of_vjun writes:
on Oct 02 2007 03:06 AM

You will be missed, Ms. Maxwell.

And by the way, RT, it's Fremantle.


(Reply to this)
vader_of_vjun
vader_of_vjun writes:
on Oct 02 2007 03:07 AM

You will be missed, Ms. Maxwell.

And by the way, RT, it's Fremantle.


(Reply to this)
unbreakable_samurai
unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Oct 02 2007 03:25 AM

RIP

(Reply to this)
ledawg1138
ledawg1138 writes:
on Nov 05 2008 09:00 PM

Goodbye my desktop tease.

(Reply to this)
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