Roger Moore — Bond, James Bond — Dead At 89

Sir Roger Moore, the actor known for playing the role of James Bond for the longest time in the franchise's history, has died at the age of 89, his family said.

The famed actor's family confirmed the news in a statement posted to Moore's Twitter account.

"It is with a heavy heart that we must announce our loving father, Sir Roger Moore, has passed away today in Switzerland after a short but brave battle with cancer," the statement read. "The love with which he was surrounded in his final days was so great it cannot be quantified in words alone."

In the statement, the family said that their own love and admiration for Moore would be magnified, many times over, across the world, by the people who knew him for his films, his television shows and his work for UNICEF.

"Thank you Pops for being you, and for being so very special to so many people."

Moore played the role of 007 in seven Bond films between the early 1970s and 1985, including "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Octopussy." The actor, with his good looks and charms, was part of the elite club who played the British spy, a club that includes Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and the most recent actor to play the role, Daniel Craig.

In the role of Bond, Moore took a turn from his predecessor Sean Connery, depicting 007, the sophisticated ladies man who could bed women just as easily as he could take down his enemies, with a bit of irony and humor.

“To me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous, so outrageous,” he once said, as relayed by the Associated Press. “I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy and yet, everybody knows he’s a spy. Every bartender in the world offers him martinis that are shaken, not stirred. What kind of serious spy is recognized everywhere he goes? It’s outrageous. So you have to treat the humor outrageously as well.”

Before his portrayal of Bond, Moore held roles on television in the 1960s TV shows "The Persuaders" and "The Saint."

Born in London in 1927, Moore was the son of a policeman. He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and had a brief stint in Hollywood before going on to play Bond.

He is survived by his wife Kristina Tholstrup and his children, Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian.

Patch will update this report.

Photo by Larry Ellis/Hulton Archive/Getty Images