Remembering Dudley Moore
His most celebrated role came in the 1981 movie “Arthur,” where his portrayal of the lovable, hard‑drinking millionaire earned him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
Remembering Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore was born Dudley Stuart John Moore on April 19, 1935, in Dagenham, Essex, England. The only child of a grammar schoolteacher and a medical secretary, he showed prodigious talent at the piano from an early age, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music before reading music at Magdalen College, Oxford. While at Oxford he joined the famed Cambridge Footlights (despite being a Cambridge outsider), where his sharp wit and musical gifts first brought him to public attention in the late 1950s.
In the early 1960s Moore formed a legendary comedy partnership with Peter Cook, co‑writing and co‑starring in the satirical television series “Not Only… But Also.” Their “Dagenham Dialogues” and musical parodies won them cult status, paving the way for Moore’s move into film. He co‑wrote and starred in the absurdist comedy “Bedazzled” (1967), but it was his later Hollywood turn opposite Bo Derek in Blake Edwards’s romantic comedy “10” (1979) that made him an international star. His most celebrated role came in “Arthur” (1981), where his portrayal of the lovable, hard‑drinking millionaire earned him a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Through the 1980s Moore continued to balance comedy and music, appearing in films such as “Unfaithfully Yours” (1984) and composing for stage and screen. After being diagnosed with the rare neurological condition progressive supranuclear palsy in 1999, he retired from performing and moved to Woodstock, New York. Dudley Moore died there on March 27, 2002, at the age of 66, leaving behind a legacy as one of Britain’s most gifted comic actors and a classically trained musician whose work bridged the worlds of satire, film and music.
Look back at the 1981 movie trailer for “Arthur” starring Dudley Moore
Images and photographs can be from different ranges of sources such as Pinterest, Tumblr etc. except when/where noted. If you are the copyright holder and would like them removed or credited, please get in touch.
