I was chuffed when Simon, my editor at Total Film, asked me to write a Dudley Moore obituary. Like the man himself, it was a little on the short side, although I like to think it contains a smidgen of the humour and warmth that were Dud’s stock-in-trade.
Dudley Moore (1935-2002)
Pint-sized pianist, actor and comic passes away.
Dudley Moore finally succumbed to progressive supranuclear palsy on March 27th at the age of 66. Most famous for his partnership with Peter Cook, the 5’2’’ Essex Boy was a hugely popular performer in the fields of comedy, music and film.
Attending Oxford on an organ scholarship, he first tasted game with comedy troupe Beyond The Fringe and his jazz trio. He co-starred with Cook in The Wrong Box (1966) and the original Bedazzled (1967) before going it alone and emerging as an unlikely sex ‘thimble’ opposite Bo Derek in 10 (1967).
His movie-career peaked with his Oscar-nominated turn as the title character in the 1981 comedy Arthur. Awarded a CBE shortly before his death, we trust he and Cook are now sharing a celestial pint - Pete banging on about “bloody Greta Garbo” while Dud stuffs his face with sandwiches to stop himself laughing.