Roger Moore fortune: James Bond actor's staggering wealth – and even bigger spending habit

Moore garnered incredible fame and fortune during his 68 year long career, earning him a net worth of $110million (£89million) at the time of his death in 2017. Fans of the celebrated actor can catch him this evening in the 1979 James Bond instalment Moonraker.

The English actor, producer and director had over 50 film credits under his belt, not including uncredited roles he took in the start of his career.

However, he is still most well known for portraying the world-renowned fictional spy James Bond, which he played for seven movies.

Moore is still considered to this day the longest running James Bond actor, working the character from 1973 to 1985.

Despite his playboy demeanour in his most well-known role, Moore had an incredible passion for philanthropy, using his millions for good.

In fact, the star was even awarded a Commander of the British Empire in recognition of his charity work.

In 2003 this was elevated to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Speaking to the Telegraph in 2012, the actor revealed charity is not his only use for his millions, noting his love for cash.

He satirically noted: “Not only am I a spender, I have had a couple of business people in the past who have been spending my money quite happily.”

He also recalled his very first paid acting role, right out of the army: “There was no pay cheque. I love cash. When I came out of the Army I went into reparatory theatre in Palmers Green and I think I got £9 or £10 a week and they were all in crispy £1 notes. The sheer luxury of them.”

“I felt flush.”

When Moore first arrived in Hollywood, he was paid roughly $400 (£326) a week in 1954, “which was a huge amount of money”, but little did he know just how much his paycheques would increase.

Moore starred as Brett Sinclair in 24 episodes of The Persuaders, and noted that this was his first $1million (£815,000) project for a year’s worth of work.

He shared his reaction: “When I saw that figure it never worked out quite that way. There was the demon of tax, and house and expenses growing all the time. I always seemed to spend a little more than I had. And of course the only saving you could do was to leave the country.”

Alongside his fees for working in filming, Moore also receives royalties and a percentages of profits.

In the 2012 interview he revealed he was receiving bi-annual royalty cheques for the Bond films.

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As a result of his time as Bond, Moore was offered his most lucrative commercial opportunity, a commercial for Hanson Industries, which he was paid $1million (£815,000) for three days’ work.

After that amount of investment, the commercial was not even allowed to be aired as they were concerned about being sued by MGM for it being too Bond-like.

Moore satirically noted: “I don’t think I’ve ever made any good financial decisions.”

Throughout his life Moore had a series of serious illnesses and diseases, including double pneumonia, jaundice and suffered long-term from kidney stones.

As a result of his kidney stones Moore was hospitalised during the filming of both Live and Let Die and Moonraker.

Moore also successfully beat prostate cancer after being diagnosed in 1993, but the health issues would not stop there.

In 2003 he was fitted with a pacemaker due to his incredibly slow heartbeat and was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2013.

Then, a tumour was spotted on his liver and he was diagnosed with lung cancer, which would ultimately be his downfall.

His £80million net worth at the time of his death in 2017 was mostly tied up in properties, and his fourth wife was put in guardianship, although by 2019 the estate was still frozen due to ongoing court cases claiming that her lawyer had been depleting her funds.

Moonraker, which is Roger Moore’s fourth appearance as James Bond, is showing this afternoon at 5pm on ITV.

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