Lois Ruth Maxwell (née Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress. She was best known for portraying Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 Eon-produced James Bond films (1962–1985), from Dr. No in 1962 to A View to a Kill in 1985.
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.
Early life and education
Lois Ruth Hooker was born on 14 February 1927 at St Mary's Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario to William Victor Hooker (1898–1962), a teacher, and Ruth Adelaide Wells (1900–1967), a nurse. At the time of Lois's birth, William was acting principal of Suddaby School, and the Hookers lived at 76 Filbert Street in Kitchener. In the fall of 1927, the family moved to Toronto, where William took a position at Clinton School; he worked there until 1933, when he moved to Davisville School. In Toronto, the family lived initially at 93 Lawrence Avenue W, then moved in 1929 to 2183 Bloor W, in 1930 to 519 Windermere, in 1932 to 673 Annette, and finally in 1933 to 340 Brookdale Avenue, where Lois spent the rest of her youth. Lois 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, The rest of her family also took this name.
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). 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. There she made a series of films, and at one point became an amateur race driver. 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.
Role as Miss Moneypenny
Maxwell lobbied for a role in the James Bond film Dr. No (1962), after her husband had suffered a heart attack, and they needed the money. Director Terence Young, who had turned her down on the grounds that she "looked like she smelled of soap", offered her either Miss Moneypenny or Bond's girlfriend, Sylvia Trench, but Maxwell was uncomfortable with the idea of a revealing scene outlined in the screenplay. The role as M's secretary guaranteed just two days' work at a rate of £100 per day, and Maxwell supplied her own clothes for the filming. Moneypenny's undercover policewoman's cap disguises the hair Maxwell had already dyed in preparation for another part.
According to author Tom Lisanti, Maxwell's Moneypenny was seen as an "anchor", and her flirtatious relationship with Bond provided the films with dramatic realism and humanism; for Moneypenny, Bond was "unobtainable", freeing the characters to make outrageous sexual double entendres.
Later life
Maxwell's husband died in 1973, having never fully recovered from his heart attack in the 1960s. Maxwell subsequently returned to Canada,
Death
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."