Obituary: Lois Maxwell

Actress Lois Maxwell, most known to millions of fans for her role as Second Officer Jane Moneypenny or simply Miss Moneypenny in most of the James Bond movies, has died in Australia aged 80.

"She passed away on 29th September at 11:40 pm," said a spokeswoman for Fremantle Hospital in western Australia. The Canadian-born actress had been living in Australia for several years because her son and his family are based there. She first played the character, with whom the ever-charming 007 constantly flirted, alongside Sean Connery in Dr. No in 1962. She continued to play the role for more than two decades, starring in her final Bond movie, the 1985 A View To A Kill, with Roger Moore.

"She was my lucky token," Moore said today. "People who remember the Bond films with Moneypenny will remember her with great affection. She certainly will be missed by me and I'm sure by millions of fans around the world."

Already an experienced actor before she took on Bond, Maxwell said in 2005 that she accepted the Miss Moneypenny role at a difficult time in her life. "I had a husband who was desperately ill, with two small children and no money, so I called producers I had worked with before and said 'help me,'" she said. Bond director Terence Young offered Maxwell two Bond roles and she chose Moneypenny, insisting that the director not "put my hair in a bun and horn-rimmed glasses on me."

Asked which was her favourite Bond movie, Maxwell nominated On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the only one in which Australian George Lazenby played 007. "I think it's the best film, I mean I think it's an excellent film," she said in the 2005 interview. "Had it not been a Bond film, had it just been a film, it would've been a fabulous film."

Source: Yahoo