For actor Roger Moore his word is his Bond

By Steve James

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After 60 years in the make-believe world of acting, Roger Moore admits to telling the occasional fib or little white lie now and again.

Not that that should prevent anyone from reading his memoir, "My Word is My Bond," which is full of stories -- tall or otherwise -- about his life on stage, TV and in the movies.

"You want to know when I'm not lying?" he asked impishly in a recent interview before answering his own question with a knowing smile: "My mouth is not moving!

"I've said extraordinary things in interviews," said Moore, who will forever be remembered as the big screen superspy James Bond. "I've given so many different answers."

The 81 year-old actor talked to Reuters about giving interviews, his book and hypochondria.

Q: Don't you get tired of doing interviews?

A: "During Bond you'd have hundreds of journalists and you would get the same questions 400 times and I would think up different answers. So I did a whole thing about stealing hotel towels. It was a load of ... (nonsense)!"

Q: Did your tales ever get you in trouble?.

A: "At Warner Brothers I was doing (the 1950s TV series) 'Maverick' and sitting on the back lot and it was hot and my feet were pinched in these bloody cowboy boots.

"I was doing an interview and said the reason there were so many killers in the Old West was the boots -- they pinched their feet and they got bad-tempered and shot one another.

"About a month later I was sent for by Bill Orr, who was the head of Warner Brothers TV and he said: 'You know, the Acme Boot Company are very upset. They supply our boots and you'd better stop saying these things.'"

Q: Why did you write the book?

A: "I was offered $2 million to write it by (Hollywood talent agent) Swifty Lazar and like a fool I said 'No thank you.' I should have taken it!

"(But) I started 20 years ago when Michael Caine kept nudging me. But I didn't want to write about all my friends who were still alive and it would sound like rear-end kissing if I write nice things about people that are still alive.

"That's an excuse really, because I'm very lazy."