Oscar Actors: Moore, Dudley–Background, Career, Awards

Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE (April 10, 1935–March 27, 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician, and composer. Moore first came to prominence as leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writer-performers in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe from 1960 that created a boom in satiric comedy, and with one member of that team, Peter Cook, collaborated on the BBC TV series Not Only… But Also. The double act worked on other projects until the mid-1970s, by which time Moore had settled in Los Angeles to concentrate on his film acting.

His solo career as comedy actor was heightened by the success of Hollywood films, particularly Foul Play (1978), 10 (1979) and Arthur (1981), for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.

Moore was born at the original Charing Cross Hospital in central London, the son of Ada Francis (née Hughes), a secretary, and John Moore, a railway electrician. His father was Scottish, from Glasgow.

Moore was brought up in Dagenham, Essex. He was notably short at 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) and was born with club feet that required extensive hospital treatment. Coupled with his diminutive stature, it made him the butt of jokes. His right foot responded well to corrective treatment and had straightened itself by age 6, but his left foot became permanently twisted and his left leg below the knee was withered. He remained very self-conscious throughout his life.

Boy Prodigy

Moore became choirboy at the age of 6. At age 11, he earned scholarship to Guildhall School of Music, where he took up harpsichord, organ, violin, musical theory and composition.

He rapidly developed into pianist and organist and was playing the pipe organ at local church weddings by age 14.

He attended Dagenham County High School where he received musical tuition from dedicated teacher, who became a friend and confidant to Moore and continued to correspond with him until 1994.

Moore’s musical talent won him an organ scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, tutored by composer Bernard Rose. While studying music and composition, he performed with Alan Bennett in Oxford Revue.

During university years, Moore had developed love of jazz music and became accomplished jazz pianist and composer. He began working with musicians such as John Dankworth and Cleo Laine.

In 1960, he left Dankworth’s band to work on Beyond the Fringe.

John Bassett, a grad of Wadham College, Oxford recommended Moore, his jazz bandmate and rising cabaret talent, to producer Robert Ponsonby, who was putting together comedy revue, Beyond the Fringe. Bassett also chose Jonathan Miller, Moore recommended Alan Bennett, who in turn suggested Peter Cook.

Beyond the Fringe was at the forefront of the 1960s UK satire boom, although the show’s original runs in Edinburgh and provinces in 1960 had lukewarm response. When the revue transferred to the Fortune Theatre in London, in revised production by Donald Albery and William Donaldson, it became sensation, due in part to favorable review by Kenneth Tynan.

There were also musical items in the show, using Dudley Moore’s music–arrangement of the Colonel Bogey March which seemingly resists Moore’s repeated attempts to bring it to an end.

In 1962, the show transferred to John Golden Theatre in NY, with its original cast. President Kennedy attended performance on Feb 10, 1963. The show continued in New York until 1964.

When Moore returned to UK, he was offered his own series on the BBC, Not Only… But Also (1965, 1966, 1970). It was commissioned as vehicle for Moore, but when he invited Peter Cook on as guest, their partnership was so notable that it became a permanent fixture. Cook and Moore are remembered for sketches as two working class men, Pete and Dud, in macs and cloth caps, commenting on politics and the arts, but they also fashioned a series of one-off characters, usually Moore as interviewer to one of Cook’s upper-class eccentrics.

The pair developed unorthodox method for scripting the material, using a recorder to tape an ad-libbed routine that they would then have transcribed and edited. This would not leave enough time to rehearse the script, so they often set of cue cards. Moore was famous for “corpsing” so, as the programs often went out live, Cook would deliberately make him laugh in order to get an even bigger reaction from the studio audience.

In 1968 Cook and Moore briefly switched to ATV for four one-hour programs entitled Goodbye Again; however, they were not as critically well-received as the BBC shows.

Moore and Cook appeared in the 1966 British comedy film The Wrong Box, before co-writing and co-starring in Bedazzled (1967) with Eleanor Bron, set in singing London and directed by Stanley Donen.

The pair closed the decade with the ensemble caper film Monte Carlo or Bust and Richard Lester’s The Bed Sitting Room, based on play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.

In 1968 and 1969 Moore embarked on two solo comedy ventures, in the film 30 is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia and secondly, on stage, for Anglicized adaptation of Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam at the Globe Theatre.

In the 1970s, the relationship between Moore and Cook became strained as the latter’s alcoholism affected his work.

In 1971, however, Cook and Moore took sketches from Not Only….But Also and Goodbye Again, together with new material, to create the stage revue Behind the Fridge. This show toured Australia in 1972 before New York City in 1973, re-titled as Good Evening. Cook appeared on and off stage the worse for drink. Nonetheless, the show proved popular and it won Tony and Grammy Awards.

Moore stayed on in the U.S. to pursue his ambitions in Hollywood, but the pair reunited to host Saturday Night Live on January 24, 1976 during SNL’s first season. They performed classic stage routines, including “One Leg Too Few” and “Frog and Peach”, in addition to some skits with the ensemble.

Cook persuaded Moore to take the humor of Pete and Dud farther on long-playing records as Derek and Clive. Chris Blackwell circulated bootleg copies to friends in the music business and the popularity of the recording convinced Cook to release it commercially as Derek and Clive (Live) (1976). Two further “Derek and Clive” albums, Derek and Clive Come Again (1977) and Derek and Clive Ad Nauseam (1978), were later released. The latter was also filmed for a documentary, Derek and Clive Get the Horn. In the film it is clear tensions between the two men were at a breaking point, with Moore at one point walking out of the recording room singing, ‘Breaking up is so easy to do.’ In 2009, it came to light that, at the time, three separate British police forces had wanted them to be prosecuted under obscenity laws for their “Derek and Clive” comedy recordings.

The last appearance for the partnership was in 1978’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, where Moore played Dr. Watson to Cook’s Sherlock Holmes, and three other roles: in drag; as a one-legged man; and at the start and end of the film as a flamboyant and mischievous pianist. He also wrote the film’s score. Co-star Terry-Thomas described it as “the most outrageous film I ever appeared in … there was no magic … it was bad!” The film was not a success critically or financially.

Moore and Cook reunited for the annual American benefit for the homeless, Comic Relief, in 1987, and again in 1989 for British audience at the Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball.

Moore was affected by the death of Cook in 1995, and for weeks would regularly phone Cook’s home in London, just to hear his friend’s voice on answering machine.

In November 1995, Moore teamed up with friend and humorist Martin Lewis in organizing a two-day salute to Cook in Los Angeles that Moore co-hosted with Lewis.

In December 2004, Channel 4 TV station in the UK broadcast Not Only But Always, a TV film dramatizing the relationship between Moore and Cook, although the principal focus of the production was on Cook. Around the same time the relationship between the two was also the subject of a stage play called Pete and Dud: Come Again by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde. For this production Moore is the main subject. Set in a chat-show studio in the 1980s, it focuses on Moore’s comic and personal relationship with Cook and the directions their careers took after the split of the partnership.

During the 1960s he formed the Dudley Moore Trio, with drummer Chris Karan and bassist Pete McGurk. Following McGurk’s suicide in June 1968, Peter Morgan joined the group as his replacement.

Moore’s principal musical influences were Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner. The day he finally mastered Garner’s unique left-hand strum and was so excited that he walked around for several days with his left hand constantly playing that cadence. His early recordings included “My Blue Heaven”, “Lysie Does It”, “Poova Nova”, “Take Your Time”, “Indiana”, “Sooz Blooz”, “Baubles, Bangles & Beads”, “Sad One for George” and “Autumn Leaves”. The trio performed regularly on British television, made numerous recordings and had a long-running residency at Peter Cook’s London nightclub, the Establishment. Amongst other albums, they recorded The Dudley Moore Trio, Dudley Moore plays The Theme from Beyond the Fringe and All That Jazz, The World of Dudley Moore, The Other Side Of Dudley Moore and Genuine Dud.

Moore was a close friend of record producer Chris Gunning and played piano (uncredited) on the 1969 single “Broken Hearted Pirates” which Gunning produced for Simon Dupree and the Big Sound.

In 1976 he played piano on Larry Norman’s album In Another Land, in particular on the song The Sun Began to Rain. In 1981 he recorded Smilin’ Through with Cleo Laine.

He composed the soundtracks for the Bedazzled (1967), 30 is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968), Inadmissible Evidence (1968), Staircase (1969), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) and Six Weeks (1982), among others.

In the late 1970s Moore moved to Hollywood–supporting role in the Foul Play (1978) with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.

His breakout role in Blake Edwards’s 10 became one of the biggest box-office hits of 1979 and gave him status as romantic leading man. The next comedy Wholly Moses! was not a success.

In 1981 Moore appeared in the title role of the comedy Arthur, a bigger hit than 10. Co-starring Liza Minnelli and Sir John Gielgud, it was both commercially and critically successful, Moore receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, whilst Gielgud won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Arthur’s stern but compassionate manservant. Moore lost to Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond).

Six Weeks (1982), Lovesick (1983), Romantic Comedy (1983) and Unfaithfully Yours (1984) were moderate successes.

Later films, including Best Defense (1984), Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Like Father Like Son (1987), Arthur 2: On the Rocks, a sequel to the original, Crazy People (1990), Blame It on the Bellboy (1992) and an animated adaptation of King Kong, were inconsistent in terms of both critical and commercial reception. Moore eventually disowned the Arthur sequel, but, in later years, Cook would tease him by claiming he preferred Arthur 2: On the Rocks to Arthur.

In 1986 he once again hosted Saturday Night Live, without Peter Cook.

Moore was the subject of the British This Is Your Life, for a second time, in March 1987 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at his Venice Beach restaurant; he had previously been honored by the program in December 1972.

Moore continued to work as a composer and pianist, writing scores for films and giving piano concerts, highlighted by popular parodies of classical favorites. He also appeared as Ko-Ko in Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado in Los Angeles in March 1988.

In 1991 he released the album Songs Without Words, and in 1992 Live From an Aircraft Hangar, recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

He collaborated with the conductor Sir Georg Solti in 1991 to create a Channel 4 TV series, Orchestra!, which was designed to introduce audiences to the symphony orchestra. He later worked with the American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas on a similar television series, Concerto! (1993), likewise designed to introduce audiences to classical music concertos.

Moore appeared in series for CBS, Dudley (1993) and Daddy’s Girls (1994); however, both were cancelled before the end of their run.

By 1995 Moore’s film career was on the wane and he was having trouble remembering his lines, a problem he had never previously encountered. It was for this reason he was sacked from Barbra Streisand’s film The Mirror Has Two Faces.

However, his difficulties were, in fact, due to the onset of medical condition that eventually led to his death. Opting to concentrate on the piano, he enlisted Fruchter as an artistic partner. They performed as a duo in the US and Australia.

However, his disease soon started to make itself apparent there as well, as his fingers would not always do what he wanted them to do. Further symptoms such as slurred speech and loss of balance were misinterpreted by the public and the media as a sign of drunkenness. Moore himself was at a loss to explain this. He moved into Fruchter’s family home in New Jersey and stayed there for five years; however, this placed a great strain both on her marriage and her friendship with Moore, and she later set him up in the house next door.

Tony Bill and Dudley Moore founded restaurant in 1983 (closed in November 2000), 72 Market Street Oyster Bar and Grill, in Venice, California.

Moore was married and divorced four times: to actresses Suzy Kendall (15 June 1968 – 15 September 1972), Tuesday Weld (20 September 1975 – 18 July 1980; by whom he had son Patrick on February 26, 1976), Brogan Lane (February 21, 1988 – 1991), and Nicole Rothschild (16 April 1994 – 1998; one son, Nicholas, born on June 28, 1995).

He maintained good relationships with Kendall, Weld and Lane, but expressly forbade Rothschild to attend his funeral. At the time his illness became apparent, he was going through difficult divorce from Rothschild while at the same time sharing house in Los Angeles with her and her previous husband.

Moore dated Susan Anton in the early 1980s: Moore at 5 feet 2 1⁄2 inches (1.588 m) and Anton at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m).

In 1994, Moore was arrested and charged with domestic assault after assaulting his then-girlfriend, Nicole Rothschild.

In April 1997, after spending five days in a New York hospital, Moore was informed that he had calcium deposits in the basal ganglia of his brain and irreversible frontal lobe damage. In September 1997 he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in London. He also suffered four strokes.

On 30 September 1999, Moore announced that he was suffering from terminal degenerative brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a Parkinson plus syndrome, some of the early symptoms being so similar to intoxication that he had been reported as being drunk, and that the illness had been diagnosed earlier in the year.

Moore died on March 27, 2002, a result of pneumonia, secondary to immobility caused by the palsy, in Plainfield, New Jersey, at the age of 66.

Rena Fruchter was holding his hand when he died; his final words were “I can hear the music all around me.”

In November 2001, Moore was appointed a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (CBE). Despite deteriorating condition, he attended the ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 16 November to collect his honor in wheelchair.

Filmography and TV Shows

The Third Alibi (1961) – Piano accompanist (uncredited)
Flatland (1965), Short) – A Square (voice)
The Wrong Box (1966) – John Finsbury
Bedazzled (1967) – Stanley Moon
30 is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968) – Rupert Street
Monte Carlo or Bust! (1969) (aka Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies) – Lt. Barrington
The Bed Sitting Room (1969) – Police Sergeant
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972) – Dormouse
Jackanory (1973) – Narrator – One episode (The Village without Music)
Saturday Night at the Baths (1975) – Himself – in theater audience (uncredited)
Foul Play (1978) – Stanley Tibbets
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978) – Doctor Watson / Mrs. Ada Holmes / Mr. Spiggot / Piano Player
Derek and Clive Get the Horn (1979) – Derek
10 (1979) – George Webber
The Muppet Show (1979) (TV Series)–Himself–Special Guest Star
BBC Horizon (1979, Episode: “It’s About Time”)
Wholly Moses! (1980) – Harvey Orchid / Herschel
Arthur (1981) – Arthur Bach
Six Weeks (1982) – Patrick Dalton
Lovesick (1983) – Saul Benjamin
Romantic Comedy (1983) – Jason Carmichael
Unfaithfully Yours (1984) – Claude Eastman
Best Defense (1984) – Wylie Cooper
Micki + Maude (1984) – Rob Salinger
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) – Patch
The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986) – Narrator (English version, voice)
Like Father Like Son (1987) – Dr. Jack Hammond / Chris Hammond
Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) – Arthur Bach
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) – Himself (“Miss Piggy’s Hollywood” segment)
Crazy People (1990) – Emory Leeson
Orchestra! (1991, TV Series)
Blame It on the Bellboy (1992) – Melvyn Orton
Really Wild Animals (1993–1998) (TV Series) – Spin (voice)
Dudley (1993) (TV series) – Dudley Bristol
Concerto! (1993, TV Series)
The Pickle (1993) – Planet Cleveland Man (uncredited)
Daddy’s Girls (1994, TV Series) – Dudley Walker
Parallel Lives (1994) – Imaginary Friend / President Andrews
Oscar’s Orchestra (1994) – Oscar
The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson (1995) – Dudley Moore
A Weekend in the Country (1996) – Simon Farrell

The Mighty Kong (1998) – Carl Denham / King Kong (voice) (final film role)