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1-12 of 12
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Dudley Moore, the gifted comedian who had at least three distinct career phases that brought him great acclaim and success, actually started out as a musical prodigy as a child. Moore -- born in Dagenham, Essex, England to working class parents in 1935 -- won a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study the organ. At university, he also studied composition and became a classically trained pianist, though his forte on the piano for public performance was jazz. After graduating from Magdalen College in 1958, Moore was offered a position as organist at King's College, Cambridge, but turned it down in order to go to London and pursue a music and acting career. Fellow Oxonian Alan Bennett (Exter Colelge, B.A., Medieval History, 1957) had already recommended him to John Bassett, who was putting together a satirical comedy revue called "Beyond the Fringe". "Beyond the Fringe" was to be Moore's first brush with fame, along with co-stars Bennett, future theatrical director Jonathan Miller (now Sir Jonathan, who studied Medicine at Cambridge and was a physician), and Peter Cook, who was destined to become Moore's comic partner during the 1960s and '70s.
It was Miller who had recommended Cook for "Beyond the Fringe", in much the same way that Bennett had bird-dogged Moore. Cook, who had studied modern languages at Cambridge, had been part of the famous Cambridge theatrical, the Footlights revue in 1959, had subsequently gone to London to star in a West End revue for Kenneth Williams, "Pieces of Eight". This old-fashioned review was such a success there was a sequel, "One Over the Eight". He was advised by his agent not to star in the Fringe with the three others as he was a professional, whereas they were amateurs. Ironically, the great success of "Beyond the Fringe", which was a new kind of satirical comedy, would doom the very old-fashioned reviews that Cook had just tasted success in. "Beyond the Fringe" not only won great acclaim in the UK, but it was a hit in the U.S.. The four won a special Tony Award in 1963 for their Broadway production of "Beyond the Fringe" and there was a television program made of the revue in 1964.
Moore and Cook were offered the TV show Not Only... But Also (1965) by the BBC in 1965. Peter Cook was on as a guest. Their pairing was so successful, it enjoyed a second season in 1966 and a third in 1970. They were particularly funny as the working-class characters "Pete" and "Dud". The duo then broke into the movies, including The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). In 1974, the duo won their second Tony Award for their show "Good Night", which was the stage version of their TV series "Not Only... But Also".
In the mid- to late 1970s, they issued three comic albums in the guise of the characters "Derek" and "Clive" (Moore and Cook, respectively), two lavatory attendants that many viewed as reincarnations of their earlier TV characters "Pete" and "Dud". The albums, ad-libbed in a recording studio while the two drank vast quantities of alcohol, were noted at the time for their obscenity. Their typical routine was a stream-of-consciousness fugue by Cook, interspersed with interjections by Moore. With their obscenity-laden, free-formed riffs, Derke and Clive presaged the more free-wheeling shock comedy of the 1980s and '90s.
They subsequently split up as Moore could no longer tolerate Cook's alcoholism. Under the influence, Cook would become abusive towards Moore, whose acting career was undergoing a renaissance in the late '70s while his career has stalled. Ironically, it was playing an alcoholic that brought Moore to the summit of his success as an actor.
After marrying American actress Tuesday Weld in 1975, Moore moved to the U.S. and began a second career as a solo screen comedian, stealing the show from Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn as the horny conductor in the movie comedy, Foul Play (1978). When George Segal dropped out of the movie 10 (1979), director Blake Edwards cast Moore in the lead role as the composer undergoing a mid-life crisis. It was a huge hit, but was surpassed by his Oscar-nominated turn as the dipsomaniac billionaire in Arthur (1981). In the early 1980s, Moore was a top box office attraction. In 1983, the National Alliance of Theater Owners named him the Top Box Office Star-Male of the Year.
His career began petering out after he turned down the lead in Splash (1983), a role that helped establish Tom Hanks as a top movie comedian and position him for his transition into movie drama and super-stardom. As Hanks star waxed, Moore's star waned, and by 1985 he was reduced to playing an elf in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), one of the all time turkeys. Even a second turn as "Arthur" in Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) couldn't revive his box office, the dependent clause of the title all too well describing his career. His TV series Dudley (1993) was a bust, and the 1990s proved a wasteland for the once-honored and prosperous comedian.
Moore was deeply affected by the January 1995 death of Peter Cook by a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at the age of 57. Moore organized a two-day memorial to Cook in Los Angeles that was held in November 1995. Less than four years later, in September 1999, Moore announced that he was afflicted with progressive supra-nuclear palsy, a disease for which there is no treatment.
Dudley Moore was invested as a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (one step below knighthood) in June 2001. Moore personally attended the ceremony at Buckingham Palace to accept his CBE from Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), despite being unable to speak and being wheelchair-bound. He died in Watchung, New Jersey on March 27, 2002, a month shy of his 67th birthday, from the pneumonia related to progressive supra-nuclear palsy.
Dudley Moore was married four times, to actresses Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld, Brogan Lane and Nicole Rothschild, and had two sons, one with Tuesday Weld and one with Nicole Rothschild.- Actor
- Additional Crew
George Riddle was born on 21 May 1937 in Auburn, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Arthur (1981), The Innkeepers (2011) and The Kitchen (2019). He died on 2 June 2023 in North Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Robert Lowry was born on 12 March 1826 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for The Lone Ranger (2013), Aloha (2015) and Bad Girls (1994). He died on 25 November 1899 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Ray Blanco was born on 31 October 1955 in Havana, Cuba. Ray was a director and writer, known for 42K (2001), Beyond Fame (2004) and Biography (1987). Ray died on 28 July 2006 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.- Malcolm 'Shorty' Jarvis was born on 11 September 1923 in Massachusetts, USA. He died on 15 September 1998 in Plainfield, Connecticut, USA.
- Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator who was the highest-paid commercial artist in the United States by the 1920s. Born on July 25, 1870 in Philadelphia. Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Drexel Institute of Art, he was the highest-paid commercial artist and muralist in the U.S. by the 1920s. He is best known for his depictions of fantasy landscapes populated by attractive young women. He died in 1966.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frank Wiltse was born on 23 July 1963 in Key West, Florida, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Joust (1994), Rookie of the Year (1993) and Pay Per View (2015). He was married to Shurl-Lyn Hamacher. He died on 16 August 2023 in Plainfield, Illinois, USA.- Billie West was born on 5 August 1891 in Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for The Wolf Man (1915), A Man's Prerogative (1915) and Should She Obey? (1917). She was married to Frank Bennett. She died on 7 June 1967 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.
- Charlotte Potok was born on 27 September 1930 in the USA. She was an actress, known for State and Main (2000), The Spanish Prisoner (1997) and Homicide (1991). She died on 22 July 2008 in Plainfield, Vermont, USA.
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Justin Panzanaro was born in Middlesex, New Jersey, USA. Justin was a producer, known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), War of the Worlds (2005) and Inside Man (2006). Justin died on 24 February 2011 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.- Actor
Leonard Gautier was born on 29 February 1892 in Trieste Italy. He was an actor. He died on 24 March 1948 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.- Effingham Pinto was born on 2 June 1886 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Fair Lady (1922), The House of a Thousand Candles (1915) and Destiny: or, the Soul of a Woman (1915). He died in June 1954 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.