Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.
Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue
Beyond the FringeBeyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. It played in London's West End and then on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s, and is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satire in 1960s Britain.-The...
in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television double-act he formed with
Peter CookPeter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
.
His fame as a comedic film actor was later heightened by success in hit Hollywood movies such as
1010 is a 1979 romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Bo Derek, Dudley Moore, and Julie Andrews. Considered a trend-setting film at the time, and one of the year's biggest box office hits, the film made superstars of Derek and Moore....
with
Bo DerekMary Cathleen Collins , better known as Bo Derek, is an American film and television actress, model, and sex symbol, known for her role as Jenny Hanley in the 1979 comedy film 10. However, Derek's film career soon faltered; her later films, including, Bolero and Ghosts Can't Do It , were poorly...
and
Arthur in the late 1970s and early 1980s, respectively. He received an Oscar nomination for the latter role. He was frequently referred to in the media as "Cuddly Dudley" or "The Sex Thimble", a reference to his short stature and reputation as a "ladies' man".
Early life
Moore was born in
Charing Cross HospitalCharing Cross Hospital is a general, acute hospital located in London, United Kingdom and established in 1818. It is located several miles to the west of the city centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham....
, London, the son of Ada Francis (Huges), a secretary, and John Moore, a railway electrician. He was brought up in
DagenhamDagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...
,
EssexEssex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. He was notably short: 5 foot and was born with club feet that required extensive hospital treatment and which, coupled with his diminutive stature, made him the butt of jokes from other children. His right foot responded well to corrective treatment and had straightened itself by the time he was six, but his left foot became permanently twisted and consequently his left leg below the knee was withered. Seeking refuge from his problems, he became a
choirboyA choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble.As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" refers to someone who is considered honorable or conscientious.- History :The use of choirboys in Christian...
at the age of six and took up piano and violin. He rapidly developed into a highly talented pianist and organist and was playing the pipe organ at church weddings by the age of 14. He attended Dagenham County High School where he received musical tuition from a dedicated teacher, Peter Cork. Cork became a friend and confidant to Moore, corresponding with him until 1994.
Moore's musical talent won him an organ scholarship to
Magdalen College, OxfordMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
. While studying music and composition there, he also performed with
Alan BennettAlan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
in the
Oxford RevueThe Oxford Revue is a comedy group featuring students from Oxford University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians and satirists. The Revue writes, produces and performs several shows each term...
. Bennett then recommended him to the producer putting together
Beyond the FringeBeyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. It played in London's West End and then on New York's Broadway in the early 1960s, and is widely regarded as seminal to the rise of satire in 1960s Britain.-The...
, a comedy revue, where he was to first meet
Peter CookPeter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
.
Beyond the Fringe was at the forefront of the 1960s
satire boomThe satire boom is a general term to describe the emergence of a generation of English satirical writers, journalists and performers at the end of the 1950s. The satire boom is often regarded as having begun with the first performance of Beyond the Fringe on 22 August 1960 and ending around...
and after success in Britain, it transferred to the United States where it was also a hit.
During his university years, Moore took a great interest in
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and soon became an accomplished jazz pianist and composer. He began working with such leading musicians as
John DankworthSir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...
and
Cleo LaineDame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
. In 1960, he left Dankworth's band to work on
Beyond the Fringe. During the 1960s he formed the "Dudley Moore Trio" (with drummer
Chris KaranChris Karan is a jazz percussionist, primarily a drummer, of Greek descent from Melbourne. He played in Mike Nock's trio in Sydney in the early 1960s...
and bassists Pete McGurk and later Peter Morgan). Moore's admitted principal musical influences were
Oscar PetersonOscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
and Errol Garner. In an interview he recalled 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 and 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.
Moore composed the soundtracks for the films
Bedazzled,
Inadmissible Evidence,
StaircaseStaircase is a two-character play by Charles Dyer about an aging gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. One of them is a part-time actor about to go on trial for propositioning a police officer...
and
Six WeeksSix Weeks is a 1982 film drama, directed by Tony Bill and based on a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart. It stars Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore....
among others.
Partnership with Peter Cook
After following the Establishment to New York City, Moore returned to the UK and was offered his own series on the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Not Only... But AlsoNot Only... But Also was a popular 1960s BBC British television series starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.-History:The show was originally intended as a solo project for Moore, called Not Only Dudley Moore, But Also His Guests...
(1965). It was commissioned specifically as a vehicle for Moore, but when he invited Peter Cook on as a guest, their
comedy partnershipA double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...
was so notable that it became a permanent fixture of the series. Cook and Moore are most remembered for their sketches as two working class men,
Pete and DudPete and Dud were characters played by the comedians and entertainers Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.The dialogue format originated in 1964 when Dudley Moore invited Peter Cook to appear in a television performance, whereupon Peter Cook scripted a conversation between two men from Dagenham in flat caps...
, in macs and cloth caps, commenting on politics and the arts, but they fashioned a series of one-off characters, usually with Moore in the role of interviewer to one of Cook's upper-class eccentrics. The pair developed an unorthodox method for scripting the material by using a tape recorder to tape an ad libbed routine that they would then have transcribed and edited. This would not leave enough time to fully rehearse the script so they often had a set of cue cards. Moore was famous for "
corpsingCorpsing is a British theatrical slang term used to describe when an actor unintentionally breaks character during a scene by laughing or by causing another cast member to laugh...
"—the programmes often went on live, and Cook would deliberately make him laugh in order to get an even bigger reaction from the studio audience. Regrettably, many of the videotapes and film reels of these seminal TV shows were later erased by the BBC (an affliction which wiped out large portions of other British television productions as well, such as
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
), although some of the soundtracks (which were issued on record) have survived. Moore and Cook co-starred in the film
Bedazzled (1967) with
Eleanor BronEleanor Bron is an English stage, film and television actress and author.-Early life and family:Bron was born in 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin...
, and also had tours called
Behind the Fridge and
Good Evening.
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 comedy recordings made during the late 1970s under the pseudonyms
Derek and CliveDerek and Clive is a double act of comedic characters created by Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in the 1970s. The performances were captured on the records Derek and Clive , Derek and Clive Come Again , and Derek and Clive Ad Nauseam , as well as in a film documentary, Derek and Clive Get the Horn...
. Shortly following the last of these,
Derek and Clive – Ad Nauseam, Moore made a break with Cook, whose alcoholism was affecting his work, to concentrate on his film career. When Moore began to manifest the symptoms of the disease that eventually killed him (
progressive supranuclear palsyProgressive supranuclear palsy is a degenerative disease involving the gradual deterioration and death of specific areas of the brain....
), it was at first suspected that he too had a drinking problem. Two of Moore's early starring roles were the titular drunken playboy
Arthur and the heavy drinker George Webber in
1010 is a 1979 romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Bo Derek, Dudley Moore, and Julie Andrews. Considered a trend-setting film at the time, and one of the year's biggest box office hits, the film made superstars of Derek and Moore....
.
Later career
In the late 1970s, Moore moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in
Foul PlayFoul Play is a 1978 American comic mystery/thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping....
(1978) with
Goldie HawnGoldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
and
Chevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
. The following year saw his break-out role in
Blake EdwardsBlake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
's
10, which he followed up with the movie
Wholly MosesWholly Moses! is a 1980 Biblical spoof similar to that of Monty Python's Life of Brian. Dudley Moore, between performances in 10 and Arthur, plays Old Testament-era idol maker Herschel, whose life and adventures seem to parallel that of the more famous Moses, all the while being misled to think he...
! The latter was not a major success.
Moore played Watson to Cook's Holmes in 1978's
Hound of the Baskervilles. Moore was noteworthy as a comic foil to Sir Henry and played 3 other roles: one in drag and one as a one legged man. Moore also played the piano for the entire score and appears at the start and end of the film as a flamboyant and mischievous pianist. Moore also scored the film.
In 1981, Moore appeared as the lead in the comedy
Arthur, an even bigger hit than
10, which also starred
Liza MinnelliLiza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
and Sir
John GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
. It was both commercially and critically successful; Moore received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor whilst Gielgud won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Arthur's stern but compassionate manservant. Moore lost to
Henry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
(for
On Golden PondOn Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same title. Henry Fonda won the Academy Award in what was his final film role. Co-star Katharine Hepburn also received an Oscar, as did Thompson for his...
). He did, however, win a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy. In 1984, Moore had another hit, starring in the
Blake EdwardsBlake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
directed
Micki + MaudeMicki + Maude is a 1984 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Dudley Moore. It co-stars Tony-award winning actress and dancer Ann Reinking as Micki and Amy Irving as Maude....
, co-starring
Amy IrvingAmy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
. This won him another Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy.
His subsequent films, including
Arthur 2: On the RocksArthur 2: On the Rocks is the 1988 sequel to the 1981 film Arthur. Lead actors Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli reprised their roles.John Gielgud, who won an Academy Award for his role in the original film, reappears briefly in a drunken hallucination on Arthur's part.The film co-stars Kathy Bates as...
, a sequel to the original, and an
animated adaptation of King KongThe Mighty Kong is a 1998 animated, musical adaptation of the classic King Kong story. Jodi Benson and Dudley Moore headed its cast of voice actors...
, were inconsistent in terms of both critical and commercial reception; Moore eventually disowned the former. In later years, Cook would wind up Moore by claiming he preferred
Arthur 2: On the Rocks to
Arthur.
In addition to acting, Moore continued to work as a composer and pianist, writing scores for a number of films and giving piano concerts, which were highlighted by his popular parodies of classical favourites. In addition, Moore collaborated with the conductor Sir
Georg SoltiSir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
to create a 1991 television series,
Orchestra!, which was designed to introduce audiences to the symphony orchestra. He later worked with the American conductor
Michael Tilson ThomasMichael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
on a similar television series from 1993,
Concerto!, likewise designed to introduce audiences to classical music concertos. He also appeared as Ko-Ko in a Jonathan Miller production of
The MikadoThe Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
in Los Angeles in March 1988.
In 1987, he was interviewed for the
New York Times by the music critic Rena Fruchter, herself an accomplished pianist. They became close friends. At that time Moore's film career was already on the wane. He was having trouble remembering his lines, a problem he had never previously encountered (for this reason he was fired from
Barbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
's film
The Mirror Has Two FacesThe Mirror Has Two Faces is a 1996 American romance film produced and directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on the 1958 French film Le Miroir à deux faces written by André Cayatte and Gérard Oury, which focused on a homely woman who becomes a...
). He opted to concentrate on the piano, and enlisted Fruchter as an artistic partner. They performed as a duo in the U.S. 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. 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, but this, however, placed a great strain on both her marriage and her friendship with Moore, and she later set him up in the house next door.
Moore was deeply affected by the death of Peter Cook in 1995, and for weeks would regularly telephone Cook's home in London just to get the telephone answering machine and hear his friend's voice. Moore attended Cook's memorial service in London and at the time many people who knew him noted that Moore was behaving strangely and attributed it to grief or drinking. In November 1995, Moore teamed up with friend and humorist Martin Lewis in organising a two-day salute to Cook in Los Angeles which Moore co-hosted with Lewis.
Moore is the main subject of the play
Pete and Dud: Come AgainPete and Dud: Come Again is a stage play about Peter Cook and Dudley Moore written by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde. This comedy drama had a sellout run at the Assembly Rooms as part of the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before transferring to London's West End at The Venue, in March 2006, in a...
, by Chris Bartlett and
Nick AwdeNick Awde Hill , is a British writer, artist, singer-songwriter and critic. The author, editor or illustrator of more than 50 books, he is based in London and Brussels...
. Set in a chat show studio in the '80s, it focuses on Moore's comic and personal relationship with Peter Cook and how their careers took off after the split of the partnership.
Entrepreneur
Moore co-owned a fashionable restaurant in Venice, California [1980s–2000]. The restaurant was named 72 Market Street. Moore played piano in the restaurant whenever he dropped by the premises.
Personal life
Moore was married and divorced four times: to actresses
Suzy KendallSuzy Kendall is a British actress best known for her film roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her blonde attractive looks got her leading roles in some fairly prestigious productions...
,
Tuesday WeldTuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
(by whom he had a son, Patrick, in 1976), Brogan Lane and Nicole Rothschild (one son, Nicholas, born in 1995).
He maintained good relationships with Kendall particularly, and also Weld and Lane. However, he expressly forbade Rothschild to attend his funeral. At the time his illness became apparent, he was going through a difficult divorce from Rothschild, despite sharing a house in Los Angeles with her and her previous husband.
Moore dated and was a favourite of some of Hollywood's most attractive women, including
Susan Anton-Youth:Anton attended Yucaipa High School in Yucaipa, California, and graduated in 1968. After high school, Anton attended San Bernardino Valley College...
. In 1994, Moore was arrested after Rothschild claimed he had beaten her before that year's Oscars; she later withdrew her charges.
Illness and death
In September 1997 Moore underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in London, and subsequently suffered four minor strokes.
In June 1998, Nicole Rothschild was reported to have told an American television show that Moore was "waiting to die" due to a serious illness, but these reports were denied by
Suzy KendallSuzy Kendall is a British actress best known for her film roles in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her blonde attractive looks got her leading roles in some fairly prestigious productions...
.
On 30 September 1999, Moore announced that he was suffering from the terminal degenerative brain disorder
progressive supranuclear palsyProgressive supranuclear palsy is a degenerative disease involving the gradual deterioration and death of specific areas of the brain....
, some of whose early symptoms were so similar to intoxication that he had been accused of being drunk, and that the illness had been diagnosed earlier in the year.
He died on 27 March 2002, as a result of pneumonia, secondary to immobility caused by the palsy, in
Plainfield, New JerseyPlainfield is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population increased to a record high of 49,808....
. Rena Fruchter was holding his hand when he died, and she reported his final words were, "I can hear the music all around me." Moore was interred in Hillside Cemetery in
Scotch Plains, New JerseyScotch Plains is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the township population increased to a record high of 23,510.-History:...
. Fruchter later wrote a memoir of their relationship (
Dudley Moore, Ebury Press, 2004).
In December 2004, the
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
television station in the United Kingdom broadcast
Not Only But AlwaysNot Only But Always is a British TV movie, originally screened on the Channel 4 network in the UK on 30 December 2004. Written and directed by playwright Terry Johnson, the film tells the story of the working and personal relationship between the comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, a hugely...
, a TV movie dramatising 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 AgainPete and Dud: Come Again is a stage play about Peter Cook and Dudley Moore written by Chris Bartlett and Nick Awde. This comedy drama had a sellout run at the Assembly Rooms as part of the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before transferring to London's West End at The Venue, in March 2006, in a...
.
Honours and awards
In June 2001, Moore was appointed a
Commander of the Order of The British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE). Despite his deteriorating condition, he attended the ceremony, mute and wheelchair-bound, at
Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
to collect his honour.
Filmography
- The Wrong Box
The Wrong Box is a British comedy film made by Salamander Film Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was produced and directed by Bryan Forbes from a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove, based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.The cast includes a...
(1966)
- Bedazzled
Bedazzled is a 1967 British comedy film directed and produced by Stanley Donen. It was written by and stars Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It is a comic retelling of the Faust legend, set in the Swinging London of the 1960s...
(1967)
- 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968)
- The Bed-Sitting Room
The Bed-Sitting Room is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Richard Lester and based on the play of the same name. It was entered into the 19th Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1969)
- Monte Carlo or Bust
Monte Carlo or Bust is a 1969 comedy film. The story is based on the Monte Carlo Rally - first raced in 1911 - and the film recalls this general era, set in the 1920s. The film is a British/French/Italian co-production, and was released in the United States under the title Those Daring Young Men in...
(1969)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film based on the Lewis Carroll novel of the same name. It had an all star cast, and John Barry composed the score....
(1972)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1978 British comedy film spoofing The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It starred Peter Cook as Sherlock Holmes and Dudley Moore as Dr. Watson...
(1978)
- Foul Play
Foul Play is a 1978 American comic mystery/thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping....
(1978)
- 10
10 is a 1979 romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Bo Derek, Dudley Moore, and Julie Andrews. Considered a trend-setting film at the time, and one of the year's biggest box office hits, the film made superstars of Derek and Moore....
(1979)
- BBC Horizon: "It's About Time" (1979)
- Wholly Moses! (1980)
- Arthur (1981)
- Six Weeks
Six Weeks is a 1982 film drama, directed by Tony Bill and based on a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart. It stars Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore....
(1982)
- Lovesick
Lovesick is a 1983 romantic comedy film. It was written and directed by Marshall Brickman. It stars Dudley Moore and Elizabeth McGovern and features Alec Guinness as the ghost of Sigmund Freud.-Plot:...
(1983)
- Romantic Comedy (1983)
- Unfaithfully Yours
Unfaithfully Yours is a 1984 romantic comedy film directed by Howard Zieff, starring Dudley Moore and Nastassja Kinski and featuring Armand Assante and Albert Brooks. The screenplay was written by Valerie Curtin, Barry Levinson, and Robert Klane based on Preston Sturges' screenplay for the 1948...
(1984)
- Micki + Maude
Micki + Maude is a 1984 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Dudley Moore. It co-stars Tony-award winning actress and dancer Ann Reinking as Micki and Amy Irving as Maude....
(1984)
- Best Defense
Best Defense is a comedy film starring Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy. It was released in 1984 by Paramount Pictures.-Plot:The movie takes place as two parallel plots separated by several years: Moore is an engineer developing a targeting system on a tank for the United States Army and Murphy is an...
(1984)
- Santa Claus: The Movie
Santa Claus: The Movie is a 1985 British/American Christmas film starring Dudley Moore and John Lithgow. It is the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind...
(1985)
- Like Father Like Son (1987)
- Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Arthur 2: On the Rocks is the 1988 sequel to the 1981 film Arthur. Lead actors Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli reprised their roles.John Gielgud, who won an Academy Award for his role in the original film, reappears briefly in a drunken hallucination on Arthur's part.The film co-stars Kathy Bates as...
(1988)
- The Adventures of Milo and Otis
The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a live action Japanese film about an orange tabby cat named Milo and a fawn pug named Otis.The original Japanese version was released on June 27, 1986, and the reworked English language version was released on August 25, 1989.Initially filmed as Koneko Monogatari...
(1989)
- Crazy People
Crazy People is a 1990 comedy film starring Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah, and directed by Tony Bill.-Plot:Emory Leeson is an advertising executive who experiences a nervous breakdown. He designs a series of "truthful" advertisements, blunt and bawdy and of no use to his boss Drucker's firm.One of...
(1990)
- Blame It on the Bellboy
Blame It on the Bellboy is a 1992 film comedy written and directed by Mark Herman, revolving around a case of mistaken identity of three individuals with similar sounding surnames staying at the same hotel...
(1992)
- Really Wild Animals
Really Wild Animals is a children's nature television series comprising 26 episodes that aired between December 29, 1993 and December 31, 1997, starring the late Dudley Moore as Spin, a talking globe. The series was released on 13 VHS tapes, and later on 13 DVDs.Released by the National Geographic...
(1993)
- Dudley
Dudley is an American Primetime television series starring Dudley Moore and Joanna Cassidy. The series premiered April 16, 1993 on CBS, temporarily replacing on Friday primetime-slot the series Major Dad, and was canceled May 14, 1993, just one episode before its regular ending.-Synopsis:The...
(1993)
- Daddy's Girls
Daddy's Girls is an American sitcom that aired on CBS in the fall of 1994. The series followed Dudley Walker , the owner of a New York fashion house who loses his wife and his business partner when, after a years-long secret affair, they run off together leaving him as the primary caretaker to his...
(1994) (TV)
- Parallel Lives
Parallel Lives is a 1994 TV movie, directed by Linda Yellen. The movie resumes some actors and similar patterns of the previous Yellen's work, Chantilly Lace...
(1994)
- The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson
The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson is a mockumentary on the disappearance of a fictitious wealthy British film producer, Kevin Johnson, who is dealing in sex, lies and blackmail in Hollywood. This marked Dudley Moore's last live-action role before his death....
(1995)
- The Mighty Kong
The Mighty Kong is a 1998 animated, musical adaptation of the classic King Kong story. Jodi Benson and Dudley Moore headed its cast of voice actors...
(1998)
UK chart singles
- "Goodbye-ee" (1965) Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
- "The L.S. Bumble Bee" (1967) Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
- "Song for Suzy" (1972) Dudley Moore Trio – upbeat jazz.
Jazz discography
- From Beyond The Fringe (Atlantic Standard 2 017, 1966)
- The Dudley Moore Trio
The Dudley Moore Trio is a 1969 jazz album and the second LP recorded by the British jazz trio led by musician, composer, actor and comedian Dudley Moore. It was released in 1969 on Decca Records in the UK and Australia, and on London Records in the USA....
(Decca RecordsDecca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
(LK UK) / London RecordsLondon Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....
(US) PS558) 1969
- Dudley Moore plays The Theme From Beyond The Fringe and All That Jazz – Atlantic 1403 (1962)
- The World of Dudley Moore – Decca SPA 106
- The Other Side Of Dudley Moore - Decca LK 4732
- Genuine Dud – Decca LK 4788
- The Music of Dudley Moore – EMI Australia (Cube Records) TOOFA.14-1/2
- Dudley Down Under – Cube ICS 13
- Dudley Moore at the Wavendon Festival – Black Lion Records
Black Lion Records was a jazz record label based in London, England.Black Lion was founded by Alan Bates in 1968. The label had two series of releases, one for British jazz musicians and one for international musicians...
BLP 12151
- Smilin' Through – Cleo Laine & Dudley Moore – Finesse Records FW 38091
- Dudley Dell – Parlophone 45R 4772
- Strictly For The Birds – Cleo Laine & Dudley Moore – CBS A 2947
- The Theme From "Beyond The Fringe" & All That Jazz – Collectibles COL 6625
- Live From an Aircraft Hangar – Martine Avenue Productions MAPI 8486
- Songs Without Words – GRP/BMG LC 6713
- The First Orchestrations – Dudley Moore & Richard Rodney Bennett – Played by John Bassett and his Band – Harkit Records HRKCD 8054
- Jazz Jubilee – Martine Avenue Productions MAPI 1521
External links