James Bond is famous for two things: saving the world and always getting the girl – and none of the stars who have played him did it with more charm or style than Roger Moore.

The actor, who died last week at the age of 89, was adored by the string of glamorous actresses who played his on-screen love interests, and he remained close friends with many of them long after the cameras stopped rolling.

Here his ‘Bond girls’ share their intimate, and often hilarious, anecdotes of a man they all regard as a perfect gentleman with a mischievous sense of humour – always ready to defuse their love scenes with his impish wit.

He saved my life as my bikini began to burn

Britt Ekland: The Man With The Golden Gun (Mary Goodnight) 1974

There were many reasons to adore Roger. He was such fun; he was very tall and very handsome; he was a kind, class act who made filming a joy.

But more than that, he literally saved my life. We were shooting the scene where we were escaping from [the villain] Scaramanga’s island with a series of controlled explosions and pyrotechnics. It was a burning hell. We walked through the scene in rehearsal several times and each explosion was timed precisely.

Britt Ekland: The Man With The Golden Gun (Mary Goodnight) 1974. She said: 'There were many reasons to adore Roger'

I was in a bikini, of course, and wearing wedge heels which made it tough to run. When the cameras started rolling, I was too slow and one explosion went off right under my bottom and singed my bikini.

My instinct was to cover my face and roll down to the floor, and if you watch the movie you can see me start to go down. Roger grabbed my hand and pulled me up to safety and carried me along to finish the scene unscathed.

Another actor might have told me off or made some sort of comment, but Roger never mentioned it again. He was always ready with a hug and a kind word. We stayed good friends for more than four decades. The fact he was married to Kristina Tholstrup [fourth wife], a Swede like me, showed what taste he had.

We last met four years ago in Paris. It was raining like crazy. We went to a wonderful hotel off the Champs-Elysees, drank champagne and laughed.

He told the most wonderful jokes but they were never crude.

His friendship is one I shall always cherish.

He was ‘my’ Bond but he was the world’s Bond.

He will for ever be remembered in the movies. And I will carry him in my heart for ever.

I’m proud to be first conquest

Madeline Smith: Live And Let Die (Miss Caruso) 1973

I’m honoured to have been Roger’s first Bond girl – and his first conquest. We filmed for three days in our underwear during a particularly cold January and he spent much of the time making me laugh.

I played an Italian villainess who was pushed out of his bed and into a cupboard when Miss Moneypenny knocked on his door. But I can reveal there was another man involved. When Roger used a ‘magnetic watch’ to pull down the zip at the back of my dress, it was actually a special-effects guy crouched between my legs with a tiny wire attached to the zip.

Madeline Smith: Live And Let Die (Miss Caruso) 1973. She said: 'I’m honoured to have been Roger’s first Bond girl'

Roger joked that it was an awkward threesome. He had a lightness of touch in his acting and his dealing with people that immediately put one at ease. There was no ego or vanity about him.

Although my part lasted for only a few minutes before the opening credits, it was the role that defined me as an actress, and I have Roger to thank for that. It was his suggestion that I should be offered the role without an audition or even meeting the director – though I only found this out years later. I had appeared with him in the TV series The Persuaders and we’d hit it off straight away.

We remained great friends and I am close to his lovely daughter Deborah. The family told me a week before that he was dying, but he kept it quiet because he didn’t want to create a huge fuss. That’s the sort of man he was.

Roger gave me licence to smell

Gloria Hendry: Live And Let Die (Rosie Carver) 1973

I was the first black Bond girl to kiss 007 but to Roger it didn’t matter what colour I was. He just enjoyed delivering those deliciously risqué double-entendres.

I play a double agent who’s afraid she’ll be no help to Bond. He replied: ‘I’m sure we’ll be able to lick you into shape.’

Gloria Hendry: Live And Let Die (Rosie Carver) 1973. She said: 'I was the first black Bond girl to kiss 007 but to Roger it didn’t matter what colour I was'

There’s another scene where I’m in a bikini, but there was a setback: the night before I’d eaten garlic. There we were, getting romantic, and I was breathing garlic all over him. After the take, he said: ‘You’re lucky. My wife’s Italian [third wife Luisa Mattioli] and I’m used to that.’

Sophisticated, fun and above all a gentleman

Tanya Roberts: A View To A Kill (Stacey Sutton) 1985

It was his seventh Bond movie and my first, but he showed me the ropes and told me how things were done.

I’d been an Angel in the final season of Charlie’s Angels on TV, so a Bond movie was a major leap for me. I was nervous, but Roger did everything to make me feel like I belonged, an equal and not out of my depth.

Tanya Roberts: A View To A Kill (Stacey Sutton) 1985. She said: 'It was his seventh Bond movie and my first, but he showed me the ropes and told me how things were done'

We spent two long days filming a scene in an elevator shaft on fire, with flames coming up beneath us, stuck in a cramped, hot space together, but his sense of humour never left him.

He was very good-looking with beautiful features and a gorgeous low voice. All very appealing. But above all, he was a real gentleman – sophisticated and fun, with a very positive energy. I’ll miss him.

The day I floored Bond...

Maud Adams: The Man With The Golden Gun (Andrea Anders) 1974; Octopussy (she played Octopussy) 1983

007 may have saved the world but it was Roger who saved the Bond franchise, giving it a sense of humour.

Love scenes were never his favourite thing, so he’d always turn them into a joke. In Octopussy, I had a love scene where Roger spins me around.

GOLDEN MOMENTS: Roger Moore with Maud Adams, left, and Britt Ekland in 1974’s The Man With The Golden Gun

Unfortunately my leg caught him in a sensitive region. It floored him and stopped production until he recovered.

Roger always seemed baffled by the attention from fans, but he underestimated his talent.

He really was a bucket of laughs on set

Kristina Wayborn: Octopussy (Magda) 1983

Roger always loved a good joke, but there is a particular one that will always stay with me. We were filming a love scene on the set at Pinewood Studios, when he got out of bed, walked past the crew and closed a door behind him.

Then we all heard a sound like an elephant urinating. On and on it went. Finally, he came back in, adjusted his trousers, and said: ‘Ah, I feel much better now.’

Kristina Wayborn: Octopussy (Magda) 1983. She said: 'Roger always loved a good joke, but there is a particular one that will always stay with me'

In fact, he’d found a bucket of water outside the door, and poured it into an empty bucket, making it sound like he was having the longest pee in history. Everyone fell about laughing.

On another occasion, we were on location in Udaipur, India. We were always very careful not to drink the water in India. But one night I wasn’t thinking and began brushing my teeth with tap water.

Suddenly, I remembered and started screaming. Roger’s hotel room was beneath mine and the walls were quite thin so he figured out what had happened. He came running up to my room with a bottle of Jack Daniels, saying: ‘Take a swig, gargle and swallow.’ He said it worked for him!

Roger was surrounded by beautiful women while filming Octopussy but he was the perfect gentleman throughout. What a beautiful man, so drop-dead gorgeous.

He waited on his Bond girls like a teaboy

Mary Stavin: Octopussy (Octopussy girl) 1983; A View To A Kill (Kimberley Jones) 1985

Bond is remembered for his martinis – shaken, not stirred – but off camera, it was Roger who waited on us. Whenever he saw me sitting with other Bond girls Maud Adams and Kristina Wayborn, all chatting away in Swedish, he’d come up and ask if we’d like coffee, milk, sugar, and he’d bring the drinks to us.

There aren’t many stars willing to be a teaboy.

Mary Stavin: Octopussy (Octopussy girl) 1983; A View To A Kill (Kimberley Jones) 1985

I’d won the Miss World contest and appeared in a couple of plays when the producers asked me to be in Octopussy, and naturally I was intimidated by the thought of acting opposite Roger Moore, but he immediately put me at ease.

He was such an amazing, sensitive man – and the only person I’ve ever known who I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about. I had no hesitation when they asked me to come back for A View To A Kill.

That was where I had my first screen kiss – and it was with Roger Moore! In the scene, he’s chased by gunmen on skis down a mountain into a lake where I’m waiting in a submarine.

It was a very nice kiss, but we were both fully clothed in ski gear, so we weren’t exactly ripping our clothes off.

I have an Octopussy poster on my wall, and two years ago Roger signed it. He wrote: ‘Dear Mary, why did I get bigger billing than the lovely Mary Stavin?’

That was Roger. Modest to the end.

Suave and debonair (and that’s off screen!)

Lois Chiles: Moonraker (Dr Holly Goodhead) 1979

The debonair, suave Bond you saw on screen was all Roger. Off screen, he was pretty much the same guy. He was elegant, kind and a very dear person, though I think that was partly a defence.

Bond had its critics, and many had questioned Roger’s acting. But he would joke about that. When honoured by the Friar’s Club in New York, he told them: ‘Say whatever you want about how bad my acting is, it won’t hurt my feelings, because everybody else has said it before.’

Lois Chiles: Moonraker (Dr Holly Goodhead) 1979. She said: 'The debonair, suave Bond you saw on screen was all Roger. Off screen, he was pretty much the same guy'

When I joined Moonraker, it was already Roger’s fourth Bond film but he never acted the star. He’d always include me in dinners and drinks with his family after filming. We filmed in glorious locations, in Paris, Venice and Rio de Janeiro, and most of my scenes were with Roger, including a couple of love scenes. Even in those, Roger would be joking to keep the mood light.

It was never drudgery with Roger.