<P> The film was a success and seven more films followed in quick succession . George Sanders took over the lead role from Hayward and did it for five of those films, while Hugh Sinclair portrayed Templar in the two last . Several of the films were original stories, sometimes based upon outlines by Charteris while others were based loosely on original novels or novellas . </P> <P> In 1953, British Hammer Film Productions produced The Saint's Return (known as "The Saint's Girl Friday" in the United States), for which Hayward returned to the role . This was followed by an unsuccessful French production in 1960 . </P> <P> In the 1960s Roger Moore revived the role in a long - running television series The Saint . According to the book Spy Television by Wesley Britton, the first actor offered the role was Patrick McGoohan of Danger Man and The Prisoner . The series ran from 1962 to 1969, and Moore remains the actor most closely identified with the character . </P> <P> Since Moore, other actors played him in later series, notably Return of the Saint (1978--1979) starring Ian Ogilvy; the series ran for one season, although it was picked up by the CBS network . In the mid-1980s, the National Enquirer and other newspapers reported that Moore was planning to produce a movie based on The Saint with Pierce Brosnan as Templar, but it was never made . (Ironically Brosnan almost became Moore's immediate successor as James Bond .) A television pilot for a The Saint in Manhattan series starring Australian actor Andrew Clarke was shown on CBS in 1987 as part of the CBS Summer Playhouse; the pilot was produced by Don Taffner, but it never progressed beyond the pilot stage . Inspector John Fernack of the NYPD, played by Kevin Tighe, made his first film appearance since the 1940s in that production, while Templar (sporting a moustache) got about in a black Lamborghini bearing the ST1 licence plate . In 1989, six movies were made by Taffner starring Simon Dutton . These were syndicated in the United States as part of a series of films titled Mystery Wheel of Adventure, while in the United Kingdom they were shown as a series on ITV . </P>

Who played simon templar in the original series of the saint