Lois Maxwell

Lois Ruth Maxwell (née Hooker; February 14, 1927 – September 29, 2007) was a Canadian actress. She was best known for portraying Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 Eon-produced James Bond films (1962–85),^[1] from Dr. No in 1962 to A View to a Kill in 1985.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Lois Maxwell
Maxwell in The Dark Past (1948)
Born	Lois Ruth Hooker (1927-02-14)February 14, 1927 Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Died	September 29, 2007(2007-09-29) (aged 80) Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
Education	Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1946–2001
Known for	Portraying Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond film series (1962–1985)
Spouse	Peter Marriott ​ ​ (m. 1957; died 1973)​
Children	2
Awards	Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress (1947)

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Maxwell graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England and began her film career in the late 1940s, winning the inaugural Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Actress for her performance in That Hagen Girl (1947). Dissatisfied with the quality and prominence of roles, she moved to Rome in the following decade, working in Italian cinema as both an actress and dubber.

After her marriage, she moved to the United Kingdom, where she appeared in several television productions and was eventually cast as Moneypenny. She did not appear in the 1967 adaptation of Casino Royale, and in the 1983 remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, as neither of the productions was Eon's, though she did, as a similar character, appear in the spoofs O.K. Connery and From Hong Kong with Love.

Maxwell was born in Kitchener, Ontario, to Ruth Adelaide Wells, a nurse, and William Victor Hooker, a teacher.^[2] Maxwell was raised in Toronto and attended Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute. She gained her first job working as a waitress at Bigwin Inn, a summer resort on Bigwin Island in Lake of Bays, Ontario.

During World War II she ran away from home, aged 15,^[2] to join the Canadian Women's Army Corps, a unit formed to release men for combat duties. CWAC personnel were secretaries, vehicle drivers, and mechanics, who performed every conceivable noncombat duty. Maxwell quickly became part of the Army Show in Canada. Later, as part of the Canadian Auxiliary Services Entertainment Unit, she was posted to the United Kingdom, where she performed music and dance numbers to entertain the troops, often appearing alongside Canadian comedians Wayne and Shuster.

Maxwell's true age was discovered when the group reached London. To avoid her being repatriated to Canada, she was discharged; she subsequently enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,^[2] where she became friends with fellow student Roger Moore. Moore was later her on-screen colleague, in the James Bond film series, from Live and Let Die (1973) to A View to a Kill (1985).

Maxwell made her first film appearances in 1946, appearing (uncredited) in the British films A Matter of Life and Death (directed by Powell and Pressburger) and Spring Song. It was at this time that she changed her surname from Hooker to Maxwell, a name borrowed from a ballet dancer friend.^[3] The rest of her family also took this name.^[4]

Moving to Hollywood at the age of 20, Maxwell won the actress Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her role in the Shirley Temple-Ronald Reagan drama That Hagen Girl (1947).^[5] In 1949, she participated in a later famous Life magazine photo layout, in which she posed with other up-and-coming actresses, Marilyn Monroe, Cathy Downs, Suzanne Dalbert, Enrica Soma, Laurette Luez and Jane Nigh.

Despite her early acclaim, most of Maxwell's subsequent work consisted of minor roles in B films.^[5] Tiring of Hollywood, she moved back to Europe in 1950, living in Rome for the next five years.^[6] There she made a series of films, and at one point became an amateur race driver.^[3] One of her Italian films was an adaptation of the opera Aida (1953), in which Maxwell played a leading role, lip-synching to another woman's vocals and appearing in several scenes with the then unknown Sophia Loren. Other notable Italian films were Tomorrow Is Too Late, with Pier Angeli and Vittorio De Sica, which won Best Italian Film at the 1950 Venice Film Festival. She also worked as an English-language dubber.

While visiting Paris, she met her future husband, TV executive Peter Marriott. They married in 1957 and moved to London, where their daughter Melinda and son Christian were both born (in 1958 and 1959). Maxwell appeared with Patrick McGoohan in the British television series Danger Man as his accomplice in the 1959 episode "Position of Trust".

During the 1960s, Maxwell appeared in many TV series and in films outside the Bond series, in both the UK and Canada. She guest-starred in two episodes of The Saint^[3] and later in one episode of The Persuaders!;^[6] in both of which she appeared alongside Roger Moore. She provided the voice of Atlanta for the Supermarionation science-fiction children's series Stingray^[3] and starred in the CBC series Adventures in Rainbow Country from 1970 to 1971.

Maxwell had a minor role as a nurse in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962).^[7] In 1963 Maxwell played a machine gun-firing nurse in the series The Avengers (episode "The Little Wonders", which was first aired on 11 January 1964). She had a guest appearance in an episode of the ITC series The Baron ("Something for a Rainy Day", 1965), as an insurance investigator.

Maxwell's husband died in 1973, having never fully recovered from his heart attack in the 1960s. Maxwell subsequently returned to Canada,^[6] settling in Fort Erie, Ontario, where she lived on Oakes Drive. She spent her summers at a cottage outside Espanola, Ontario, where she wrote a weekly column for the Toronto Sun under the pseudonym "Miss Moneypenny" from 1979 until 1994,^[6] and became a businesswoman working in the textile industry.

In 1994, she returned to the UK once again to be nearer to her daughter Melinda, retiring to a cottage in Frome, Somerset. A plaque has been placed on her home there by the Frome Society of Local Study.^[11]

Following surgery for colorectal cancer in 2001, Maxwell moved to Perth, Western Australia, to live with her son Christian's family. She remained there, working on her autobiography, until her death at Fremantle Hospital on 29 September 2007.

Of his friend's death, Sir Roger Moore said to BBC Radio 5 Live, "It's rather a shock. She was always fun and she was wonderful to be with and was absolutely perfect casting [...] It was a great pity that, after I moved out of Bond, they didn't take her on to continue in the Timothy Dalton films. 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."^[1]