2 posts tagged “obit”

Actress Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films from Dr No to A View to a Kill, has passed away in Fremantle, Western Australia, aged 80. She had moved to Australia to be closer to her son after being diagnosed with cancer, reports the BBC.
   She’ll always be the definitive Moneypenny to me, having grown up through the Roger Moore Bond years.
   What I remember from the Bond histories is that Lois Maxwell was Canadian and lied about her age to get in to the Entertainment Corps of the Canadian Army at 15. She and Roger Moore were classmates at RADA. What did surprise me from the BBC report is that Maxwell also worked as a columnist for the Toronto Sun newspaper.
   She had guest roles in The Saint (playing different characters), The Persuaders, Department S, UFO (where she also played the boss’s secretary) and other actioners in the 1960s and 1970s.
   Here at JY&A we’ll always have a reminder of her as one of the computers is named Moneypenny.
   Farewell, Lois.

I neglected to note last month the passing of Alan Martin, the appliance dealer, best known for his gentlemanly selling pitch on television in Wellington from the days of black-and-white right through to the mid-1980s, when the torch was passed to his son.
   The junior Mr Martin’s ads and later infomercials never caught on quite as well in the age of deregulation and more swish, high-budget marketing, but Alan Martin was the stuff of legend.
   His slogan, ‘It’s the putting right that counts’ for L. V. Martin & Son (he was the son—old Mr Martin doesn’t get about much) was novel in the days before money-back guarantees and free repairs were expected by consumers.
   Funny thing is, Mr Martin’s no-nonsense approach would probably do exceptionally well as YouTube clips in the 2000s. Someone should stream one of his ads online.