Roger Moore’s ‘James Bond’ Contract Guaranteed Him Unlimited Montecristo Cigars
So many iconic actors have played James Bond over the years, including Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, and of course, Roger Moore, who famously starred in such Bond classics as Live and Let Die (1973), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Octopussy (1983). The fourth person to portray 007 (after Connery, David Niven, and George Lazenby), Moore played Bond from 1973-1985, ending his reign with the much-lauded A View to Kill in 1985, once he (and some fans) felt he’d grown a bit too old for the role at 58.
With seven films under his belt, only Connery can match Moore for frequency in portraying Bond, so Moore undoubtedly can be credited for some of the classic traits fans of the franchise associate with 007. One trait as classic as Bond’s devotion to shaken martinis and Aston Martin cars is his love for nice cigars, which Moore made his own when he demanded that Bond ditch cigarettes for cigars and, in a move emulating the role he famously played, insisted his contract include an unlimited supply of a favorite brand.
Roger Moore’s ‘James Bond’ contract entitled him to as many Montecristo Cigars as he wanted
As Hollywood Reporter notes, Roger Moore was reportedly given access to an unlimited supply of Montecristos for the duration of the production of his James Bond films. This is reflected in the character’s smoking the same brand in films during the Moore era, no doubt a way for Moore to leave his personal signature on the role. Keen-eyed cigar aficionados like those at Gentleman’s Journal point out that Moore specifically smoked the Montecristo Especial No.1 cigar, which he famously uses to set a snake on fire by deploying it as the ignition for aerosol aftershave in Live and Let Die.
An array of high-end cigars have emerged from James Bond’s pocket over the years
The Gentleman’s Journal also talked about the Montecristo No.3 cigar, a smaller cigar that the journal notes “weren’t as small as the Montecristo Media Coronas the actor favoured in real life” but which were small enough to make the more literary fans of 007 a little less dubious. Roger Moore smoked the Montecristo No.3 in The Man with the Golden Gun, where he is shown “lighting up and discarding a No.3 outside the infamous Bottoms Up Club in Hong Kong,” as well as “when he deftly pickpockets a Lebanese belly dancer in Beirut” and breaks into Hai Fat’s compound in Bangkok.
Later Bond actors put their own spin on the Bond cigar. For instance, who can forget Brosnan’s bond lighting up a Romeo y Julieta Churchill next to both a mojito and a ravishing Halle Berry in Die Another Day? Though cigars seemed to disappear in Bond films for a time, the Cuban setting of Craig’s 2021 No Time to Die saw them make a comeback.
Moore isn’t the only actor to have ever pulled off some uncommon contract demands
An unlimited supply of Montecristos might seem like a lot, but it seems downright tame compared to some of the more insane Hollywood demands some celebrities have pulled off. BuzzFeed points out that Queen Latifah’s more recent films include a clause saying her character can’t die, Samuel L. Jackson refuses to do second takes if he thinks the first was perfect, and Uma Thurman demands that no one have nicer “dressing facilities” than she does. Tom Cruise is especially known for getting what he wants, including when its total control over a project like The Mummy or making it impossible to get a Mission: Impossible action figure or Top Gun flight simulator because it is against his contract for anyone to create a video game or action figure in his likeness.
