Jane Seymour on “Long Lost Brother” Roger Moore: “He Was Hilarious”

Jane Seymour recalled Roger Moore, with whom she co-starred in 1973’s James Bond movie, Live and Let Die, as a “long lost brother” and described him as being one of the funniest men in her life.

“We used to giggle terribly,” she said.

Moore, who portrayed Bond in seven movies starting with Live and Let Die, died at the age of 89 after a short battle with cancer.

Seymour was 20 when she nabbed the role of Solitaire, a Tarot card-reading psychic working for a Bond villain who loses her virginity to 007.

The actress, who headlined the long-running show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in the 1990s, described herself as akin to her character, someone who was not worldly at all, had barely traveled and barely had clothes to call her own. Now she found herself on set in Louisiana and Jamaica as well as London.

“Roger was fantastic to me,” Seymour, in Atlanta shooting The War With Grandpa, told THR. “When I was in new Orleans or in Jamaica, he made sure every night that I was OK and safe, checked to see whom I was with, he’d include me in any social thing that happened.”

Seymour knew Moore prior to making the movie as she was engaged (and later married) to director Michael Attenborough, the son of famed British actor and director Sir Richard Attenborough. Moore was “part of their family,” as she put it.

“Apparently the joke was he received a letter from Richard Attenborough, saying, ‘Please look after my daughter in law,’” she said. “So Roger used to joke that he had to look after me.”

But it was on set that they bonded and where Seymour saw how funny her co-star, who was 24 years her senior, really could be.

In the filming of the movie’s poppy field scene, the duo thought one line in the script was so bad they constantly made fun of it, sending them into stitches.  

“We couldn’t look each other in the eye without losing it completely,” said. “We ended up like a couple of teenagers and they actually banned me from the set.”

On another occasion, Seymour recalled, the two had become feverishly sick due to contracting dysentery in Jamaica and they were laid up in one of only two trailers available on the island at that time. A car ended up crashing into the trailer, with the two landing on top of each other.

“That was a crazy moment,” Seymour said.

And then there was the love scene she had to shoot with Moore. She couldn’t remember what was funnier, Moore making her have a lunch that consisted of liver and onions before the scene (“I didn’t even like liver and onions!”) or her falling asleep during the scene, with Moore waking her up with a cup of tea.

“He was funny. He was much funnier in real life than he ever was on film,” she said. “I always tell people that. He was hilarious. Hilarious!”

Seymour kept in touch with Moore over the years and become a UNICEF spokesperson at his behest. (The actor worked with the organization for decades.) The last time she saw Moore was in June 2016 when she met up with him and his wife at an event. She says she was able to spend about 45 minutes of private time with the couple.

“I’m really glad I had that time with him. We talked about life and the past and took some fun pictures together.”

His death was a shock to her. “I’m sad,” she said. “I’m really sad.”