ICONIC BOND ACTOR Roger Moore has passed away at the age of 89, after a “short but brave” battle with cancer.

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Fans of the actor have been paying tribute to him online with photos and discussion of their favourite films, but one story has touched people in particular.

Screenwriter Marc Haynes has shared this tale of meeting Roger Moore in 1983, when he was seven years old and on holiday in Nice with his grandad.

Moore had appeared in five Bond films at that point, the most recent being Octopussy – so it was safe to say that young Marc was excited to see ‘James Bond’ in the flesh.

The actor signed his plane ticket, but Haynes was distraught to see that the signature did not read ‘James Bond’, but ‘Roger Moore’. He’d got the wrong man!

“I have absolutely no idea who that is, and my heart sinks,” Haynes wrote. “So my grandad heads back to Roger Moore, holding the ticket he’d only just signed.”

I remember my grandad saying “He thinks you’ve signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond.” Roger Moore’s face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over… looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to be, “I have to sign my name as Roger Moore, because otherwise, Blofeld might find out I was here.” He asked me not to tell anyone I’d just seen James Bond, and thanked me for keeping his secret.

Years later, when Haynes was 30 years old and on a job for UNICEF, he ran into Roger Moore again in his role as an ambassador.

He told him the story of meeting him at Nice Airport, to which Moore said: “Well, I don’t remember but I’m glad you got to meet James Bond.”

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And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car – but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, “Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn’t say anything in there, because those cameramen – any one of them could be working for Blofeld.

“I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7. What a man. What a tremendous man,” Haynes concluded.

His story has been shared hundreds of thousands of times across social media, and it’s hitting people right in the feelings:

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What a gent. RIP, Sir Roger Moore.

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James Bond actor Roger Moore dies aged 89>