Lives of the Saint

"My name is Templar, Simon Templar". The debonair hero of Leslie Charteris' "The Saint":books may have sounded like James Bond, but the original stories pre-dated 007 by several decades. In a weird case of life imitating art and back, the actor who became synonymous with the role of "The Saint" was, in fact, the first choice to play James Bond, and after Sean Connery moved on, made the role of 007 his own. For many people, Roger Moore will always be the one and only Saint.

The Saint was created by British author Leslie Charteris, who was born in 1907 in Singapore. His wealthy Chinese father was a surgeon, apparently descended from the emperors of the Shang dynasty, while his mother was English. Charteris later became an American citizen, but only after a bill was passed by President F D Roosevelt specifically allowing Charteris and his daughter residence of the United States (at the time anyone with 50% 'oriental' blood was barred from emigrating to the US). Charteris (pronounced, according to the man himself, as "Chartersss" with a soft s) published his first "Saint" book ("Meet the Tiger") in Britain in 1928. (Incidentally, this apparently makes Simon Templar the longest running hero ever in continuous production in detective fiction).

Within a decade, the Saint had made the inevitable progression from the printed page to the silver screen, and the first of many films was made in Hollywood, starring Louis Hayward in the title role. A year later, the urbane George Sanders took over the part, and went on to star in nearly half a dozen Saint movies. Charteris' own suggestions for actors to play the parts included Douglas Fairbanks Junior and Cary Grant.

The Saint comes to TV

Roger Moore played Simon Templar in 118 episodes - 71 of them in black-and-white, a further 47 in colour - made by Sir Lew Grade's ITC group in Britain between 1961 and 1969. (The series returned ten years later with Ian Ogilvy in the title role but was far less successful, despite reasonable scripts and good production values).

The programmes were shot on a gruelling schedule of around 9 days per programme. They were filmed mostly at Elstree studios, north of London (now the home of the BBC's Eastenders). Roger Moore brought his own quirky style to the series. His quizzically lifted eyebrow let the audience in on the secret that this was all great fun. The show's trademark opening, in which one of the characters would say something like "But where would we be without the notorious...Simon Templar!", which was the cue for the theme music and the appearance of Templar's superimposed halo.

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