Following The Saint

I didn’t know that actor Roger Moore had a Web site, much less that it might contain something of specific interest to crime-fiction readers. And yet it has just added an intriguing interview with Burl Barer, author of the Edgar Award-winning book The Saint: A Complete History, as well as Capture the Saint and a novelization of the 1997 Val Kilmer movie The Saint. Clearly, Barer knows a thing or two about Simon Templar, aka The Saint, the fictional detective created by Leslie Charteris in the 1920s, and the character Moore played in a 1962-69 TV series. My favorite part of this new interview, which was conducted by author Wesley Britton, finds Barer answering a question about whether he has any favorite stories concerning his meeting either Charteris or Moore.

I have not yet met Roger Moore, although I have a funny story about the two of us. I wrote him a letter in care of his secretary in the UK asking if I could interview him for my book on the TV series Maverick. About a month later, my young son, about ten or eleven years old, and I returned from the video store where my son picked out three Roger Moore James Bond movies. On the way home he told me how much he liked Roger Moore. When we walked in the door, he noticed the light was blinking on the telephone answering machine. He walked over and pressed the play button. “Hello,” said the distinctive voice, “this is Roger Moore ...” I wish I had a picture of my son’s face when he heard that, standing there still holding his Roger Moore videos! Roger left me his number, but by the time I returned the call, he was gone. We have yet to connect.

(Hat tip to Lee Goldberg.)