Canadian-born actress Lois Maxwell died of cancer at her home in Fremantle, Australia, on 29 September 2007. Born Lois Hooker in Kitchener, Ontario, on 14 February 1927, she was best known for playing Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films.
She began her career in radio using the name Robin Wells, and at the age of 15 she moved to the UK with the Entertainment Corps of the Canadian army. She was a student—with future co-star Roger Moore—at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and then started getting small film roles. She moved to Hollywood and became a contract player at Warner Brothers, playing a major role in 1947’s That Hagen Girl (which also featured Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple), for which she won a Golden Globe award as “best newcomer.”
In 1962, she had a small part in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita, and that same year, she won the role of Miss Moneypenny in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. She played the character in 13 more films, finishing her run in 1985’s A View to a Kill (she was succeeded by Caroline Bliss and then Samantha Bond). Only Desmond Llewelyn, who played Q, appeared in more Bond films (his record is 17).
The Bond films she appeared in were: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Diamonds are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985).
Her other genre roles include: The Blue Man (1985), Invaders from the Deep (1981), Endless Night (1971), The Haunting (1963), Satellite in the Sky (1956), and her first film, A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Her genre television appearances include: two episodes of UFO (1970 and 1971), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969), she was a regular on the series Stingray (1964), and the Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond episode “The Room Upstairs” (1961).
Her last film role was The Fourth Angel (2001), after which she retired to Australia, and was working on an autobiography. Maxwell married Peter Marriott in 1957 (he died in 1973), and they had one son and one daughter.