You may not think “actuarial” and “murders” are related words, but they are.
There was an episode of the show The Saint, starring Roger Moore (from which the above video segment is taken), where a murder was committed with life insurance payout in mind.
You can see the entire episode here.
Of course, not so saintly Simon Templar (Roger Moore) foils the plot of extracting money from the insurance company.
A Digression on Roger Moore
Roger Moore was not available to play James Bond when he was first offered the role due to a scheduling conflict with the TV show The Saint. Moore starred as Simon Templar in The Saint from 1962 to 1969. You might think it was silly of him to turn down the role of 007, but remember that he was not just an actor in The Saint. He was the producer and director of the show as well. When Sean Connery stepped down as 007, Moore did not want to be seen as the actor replacing Connery. They were good friends.
Marc Haynes wrote about two delightful encounters with Roger Moore.
As a seven year old in 1983, in the days before First Class Lounges at airports, I was with my grandad in Nice Airport and saw Roger Moore sitting at the departure gate, reading a newspaper.
I told my granddad I'd just seen James Bond and asked if we could go over so I could get his autograph. My grandad had no idea who James Bond or Roger Moore were, so we walked over and he popped me in front of Roger Moore, with the words "My grandson says you're famous. Can you sign this?"
As charming as you'd expect, Roger asks my name and duly signs the back of my plane ticket, a fulsome note full of best wishes.
I'm ecstatic, but as we head back to our seats, I glance down at the signature. It's hard to decipher it but it definitely doesn't say 'James Bond'.
My grandad looks at it, half figures out it says 'Roger Moore' - I have absolutely no idea who that is, and my heart sinks. I tell my grandad he's signed it wrong, that he's put someone else's name - so my grandad heads back to Roger Moore, holding the ticket which he's only just signed.
I remember staying by our seats and my grandad saying "He says you've signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond."
Roger Moore's face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to me, "I have to sign my name as 'Roger Moore' because otherwise...Blofeld might find out I was here."
He asked me not to tell anyone that I'd just seen James Bond, and he thanked me for keeping his secret.
I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My grandad asked me if he'd signed 'James Bond.' No, I said, I'd got it wrong.
I was working with James Bond now.
Many, many years later, I was working as a scriptwriter on a recording that involved UNICEF, and Roger Moore was doing a piece to camera as an ambassador.
He was completely lovely and while the cameramen were setting up, I told him in passing the story of when I met him in Nice Airport.
He was happy to hear it, and he had a chuckle and said "Well, I don't remember but I'm glad you got to meet James Bond." So that was lovely.
And then he did something so brilliant.
After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car - but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, "Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn't say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld."
I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7.
What a man. What a tremendous man.
Marc Haynes
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I had a post about a movie wholly devoted to an actuarial murder: The classic Double Indemnity.
And there’s some extra appeal for insurance professionals. Double Indemnity is the only movie where actuarial tables are used to point to murder. (Related: George Bailey's insurance policy in It’s a Wonderful Life.)
It’s when Barton Keyes, the insurance investigator played by Edward G. Robinson, explains to the company’s CEO: “Come on, you never read an actuarial table in your life. I've got 10 volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poisons, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under wheels of trains, under wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from steamboats. But Mr. Norton, of all the cases on record there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train.”
It ranks at Number 35 among the greatest American films.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150720-the-100-greatest-american-films
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Actuaries Get No Respect
Actuaries for reinsurance get even less respect - as this clip illustrates.
An Actuary or a Data Scientist?
If you look at the “top rated jobs” (in the US and elsewhere), data scientists and actuaries come in the top ten. I used to tell my students that being an actuary gets you a well paid safe job - especially if you become a pension actuary.
Now I am not so sure. In the next decade or two data scientists might eat the pension actuaries for lunch.
Executive cliche: It is hard to make predictions, especially about the future.
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