# Lois Maxwell
**Lois Maxwell** (Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress best known for playing [Miss Moneypenny](https://www.edgepedia.org/miss-moneypenny), the secretary to M, in the first fourteen Eon-produced James Bond films, from *Dr. No* (1962) to *A View to a Kill* (1985)[1](https://www.valeorine.com/reference/lois-maxwell). Over a career spanning 1946 to 2001 she also appeared in British B features, voiced a lead character in [Gerry Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/gerry-anderson)'s *Stingray*, and wrote a newspaper column for the [Toronto Sun](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-sun)[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/) • [3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Lois Ruth Hooker; also credited early as "Robin Wells" on Canadian children's radio[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/) |
| Born | 14 February 1927, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada; raised in Toronto[1](https://www.valeorine.com/reference/lois-maxwell) • [4](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/lois-maxwell/umc.cpc.460px9qphip9kq40pus9119fv) |
| Signature role | Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films, 1962–1985, alongside Sean Connery, George Lazenby, and Roger Moore[5](https://goldenglobes.com/person/lois-maxwell/) |
| Golden Globe | New Star of the Year – Actress for *That Hagen Girl* (1947), awarded at the 1948 Golden Globes[5](https://goldenglobes.com/person/lois-maxwell/) |
| Other work | Voice of Lieutenant Atlanta Shore in all 39 episodes of *Stingray*; Toronto Sun column, 1979–1994[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/) • [3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html) |
| Died | 29 September 2007, aged 80, at Fremantle, Western Australia, of cancer[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html) |
## Early life and wartime service
Lois Ruth Hooker was born in [Kitchener, Ontario](https://www.edgepedia.org/kitchener-ontario), the daughter of a schoolteacher, William Hooker, and his wife Ruth, a nurse[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/). She began performing as a child on a Canadian children's radio program under the pseudonym **Robin Wells**, which she used because her parents disapproved of the work. Since she could not bring her earnings home, she spent the money on presents for soldiers recovering at a military hospital near the Toronto radio studio[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/).
In 1942 she ran away from home and lied about her age to join the Canadian Women's Army Corps, performing comedy and dance numbers to entertain troops[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/). During a tour of England in 1943 her true age was discovered and she was dishonourably discharged; she then went AWOL in London[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/). After her age was found out she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she met and became friends with fellow student [Roger Moore](https://www.edgepedia.org/roger-moore)[6](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0561755/).
## Early film career
Her film debut came in 1946 in [Michael Powell](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-powell) and Emeric Pressburger's *A Matter of Life and Death*[6](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0561755/). Moving to Hollywood, she made films including *That Hagen Girl* (1947), a vehicle for [Ronald Reagan](https://www.edgepedia.org/ronald-reagan) and [Shirley Temple](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-temple), and won the Golden Globe award for New Star of the Year – Actress[5](https://goldenglobes.com/person/lois-maxwell/). A run of unremarkable parts for Warner Brothers and Columbia Pictures followed, including *The Dark Past* (1948) and *Kazan* (1949)[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/) • [7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/maxwell-lois-1927).
In 1950 she moved to Italy and made two films, then returned to England, where she spent the 1950s as a familiar face in British cinema, largely in formulaic B-feature crime stories such as *Lady in the Fog* (1951) and *Kill Me Tomorrow* (1957)[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/maxwell-lois-1927) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/01/guardianobituaries.film).
## Miss Moneypenny
Maxwell was offered the Moneypenny role under strained circumstances. Her husband, the television executive Peter Churchill Marriott, whom she had married in 1957, suffered a serious heart attack, and with two young children she contacted directors and producers she had worked with to ask for work[9](https://www.007magazine.co.uk/archive/lois_maxwell_interview.htm). Terence Young, preparing *Dr. No* with producer "Cubby" Broccoli, invited her in and offered her a choice between Moneypenny and the larger part of Sylvia Trench, which went to [Eunice Gayson](https://www.edgepedia.org/eunice-gayson). Maxwell chose Moneypenny and negotiated permission to give the character a background of her own[9](https://www.007magazine.co.uk/archive/lois_maxwell_interview.htm).
The part paid £200 in the first film, and she had to supply her own clothes[10](https://www.007james.com/characters/miss_moneypenny.php). She later called Moneypenny "the smallest part I've ever played," but the flirtatious sparring with Bond at M's desk became a fixture of the series, and she held the role for 23 years, longer than any actor played Bond himself[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html) • [10](https://www.007james.com/characters/miss_moneypenny.php). She appeared alongside [Sean Connery](https://www.edgepedia.org/sean-connery), George Lazenby, and Roger Moore, and she named Connery her favorite Bond while saying she had the most fun working with Moore[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html).
The part nearly went to someone else more than once. [Terence Young](https://www.edgepedia.org/terence-young-director) had initially turned her down, saying she "looked like she smelled of soap," and she was nearly recast in 1967 after appearing in the spy spoof *Operation Kid Brother* alongside Neil Connery, Sean Connery's brother, and again in 1971 after demanding a pay raise[10](https://www.007james.com/characters/miss_moneypenny.php). She was 58 when she appeared in her final Bond film, *A View to a Kill* (1985), and was replaced in the next film, *The Living Daylights* (1987), by the 26-year-old Caroline Bliss[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html).
## Beyond Bond
Between Bond films Maxwell worked steadily elsewhere. She provided the voice of Lieutenant Atlanta Shore in all 39 episodes of Gerry Anderson's puppet series *Stingray*, and played Miss Holland, Commander Straker's temporary secretary, in two episodes of *UFO*, "The Cat With Ten Lives" and "The Man Who Came Back"[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/).
After her husband died of a heart attack at age 51 in 1973, she moved back to Canada and, to make ends meet, wrote a popular column for the Toronto Sun from 1979 to 1994[2](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/) • [3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html). She retired from acting in 1989[6](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0561755/), and her final film was the 2001 thriller *The Fourth Angel*, with [Jeremy Irons](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeremy-irons)[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html).
## Death and assessment
After a cancer diagnosis she moved to Australia in 2002 to be near her son, Christian; she died at Fremantle Hospital near Perth on 29 September 2007, survived by Christian and her daughter Melinda[3](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html) • [11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183611/lois-maxwell-1927-2007).
Roger Moore said after her death that producers had typecast her as Moneypenny, and expressed surprise that she was never promoted to play M in the later films[12](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/oct/01/loismaxwell19272007). As M's secretary with a first name given in the films only as "Jane," her Moneypenny traded quips with Bond but their relationship stayed flirtatious rather than physical, making her, as one retrospective put it, a stand-in for audience members who longed to live dangerously with the spy[13](https://time.com/4079504/james-bond-facts-trivia/).
## References
1. [Lois Maxwell biography, VALÉORINE reference](https://www.valeorine.com/reference/lois-maxwell)
2. [Lois Maxwell (1927–2007), Fanderson](https://fanderson.org.uk/lois-maxwell-1927-2007/)
3. [Lois Maxwell, 80; played Moneypenny in Bond film series, Los Angeles Times (2007)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-oct-01-me-maxwell1-story.html)
4. [Lois Maxwell, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/person/lois-maxwell/umc.cpc.460px9qphip9kq40pus9119fv)
5. [Lois Maxwell, Golden Globes](https://goldenglobes.com/person/lois-maxwell/)
6. [Lois Maxwell, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0561755/)
7. [Maxwell, Lois (1927–), Encyclopedia.com, Dictionary of Women Worldwide](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/maxwell-lois-1927)
8. [Lois Maxwell, obituary, The Guardian (2007)](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/01/guardianobituaries.film)
9. [Lois Maxwell interview, 007 Magazine, Issue #14 (1984)](https://www.007magazine.co.uk/archive/lois_maxwell_interview.htm)
10. [Miss Moneypenny, James Bond Characters, 007james.com](https://www.007james.com/characters/miss_moneypenny.php)
11. [Lois Maxwell (1927–2007), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183611/lois-maxwell-1927-2007)
12. [Lois Maxwell 1927–2007, The Guardian film blog (2007)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/oct/01/loismaxwell19272007)
13. [50 Things You Didn't Know About James Bond, Time (2012)](https://time.com/4079504/james-bond-facts-trivia/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › Canadian actors › Surnames M to P*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license