Actor, comedian, writer, musician. Born April 19, 1935, in Dagenham, England. Moore, probably best known for the movie 10 and his two Arthur movies as well as his comedy routines with fellow actor Peter Cook, has held a variety of positions in the entertainment world. Besides being an actor, he is a proficient musician and has written scores for movies, produced a movie, created a television series, and written a couple of screenplays. Of his career, Moore said, in an interview with Gerald Clarke in Time, "I try to seduce. I want to attract people. I want their warmth. I want their love." Moore was born of working-class parents in the London suburb of Dagenham. Because of a club foot and a short left leg, he was in and out of hospitals from the age of two weeks. Moore told Time's Gerald Clarke about a kiss he received from a nurse when he was six or seven. Her name was Pat, and Moore said "She was truly an angel of Mercy, and that kiss was probably the first taste of real, unqualified, uncomplicated affection I have ever had." Clarke wrote that as a young man Moore "learned how to win affection . . . People like to laugh, and they love those who can make them do so. Having discovered that vintage truth, he became the class clown." Moore learned the organ and violin by age fourteen and received a scholarship to study music at Oxford's Magdalen College, where he earned degrees in music and composition. Of his musical talent Jonathan Miller--a member of the British comedy revue Beyond the Fringe, which Moore would co-found--said of Moore's "promiscuous talent," "He secretes music like sweat." Moore became resident composer for the Royal Court Theatre of London and composed music for television commercials, ballet companies, and cabarets. Throughout his career Moore has appeared on stage and television and in film, where his talents as a classical musician are often a component of his characters. He has performed with his jazz piano trio and composed for films and plays. His television series Orchestra!, co-presented with conductor Sir Georg Solti, explained and showcased the sections of the symphony orchestra and its conductor, containing segments on the upper strings, woodwinds, lower strings, brass, percussion, piano, the art of conducting, and the maestro. Moore's career in satire began in 1961 when he, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, and Miller joined to create Beyond the Fringe, a revue that originated at the Edinburgh Festival. Christopher Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair "When the curtain came down, a lot of things came down with it." Fringe lampooned the royal family, the Battle of Britain, and the Church of England. Hitchens noted that "other sketches dealt witheringly and ironically with matters of what we would now tiringly call `race and class and deviance.'" The show was released as a record that became a best seller. The troupe also took the show to Broadway three years later, where it was equally successful, with its broad range of topics. Moore told Hitchens, "it was Pete who was the catalyst. I did sod all, really. And the others were all six foot two, whereas I was--still am--five foot two." Hitchens noted that Moore became "a wildly successful short person," and noted that even Pink Panther star Peter Sellers "admitted to being influenced" by the group. Sellers' role as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films was offered to Moore after Sellers' death. Moore declined. Interviewed about Fringe's influences, Miller told Hitchens, "we had the same timing as the Beatles and challenged the same conventions." Other influences on the group included American comic Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Second City, with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Sahl told Hitchens that he "is full of admiration for the Fringe team, and oddly touched that they all say they loved his work." Three months into the first season of Saturday Night Live, in January, 1976, Michaels put Moore and Cook on the show to recreate the "one-legged Tarzan" and "frog and peach" skits from their long-running revue Good Evening. They also did an impersonation of Sonny and Cher, with Cook dressed as Cher. Hitchens asked Michaels about other "cultural fallout" from Fringe. Michaels said, "Well, the Pythons don't exist without them. And if you look at something like Second City TV, . . . you can perhaps trace an influence there too." The original members of Fringe worked with and influenced family tree groups and performers that include Woody Allen, Firesign Theater, and Kids in the Hall. When Fringe closed, Moore and Cook went on to do a television series and five films. Hitchens said that Moore and Cook made tapes "for their own amusement, passing them out to an occasional friend or contact. Moore told Hitchens, "we heard that all sorts of rock groups, even the Stones and the Who, were taking the tapes on airplanes and wetting themselves with mirth. So we thought we might as well do it properly." Their revue Good Evening ran for nearly five years. In 1977 the collaboration between Cooke and Moore ended, and Moore entered into a career in films. In 1978 he co- starred with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in Foul Play. Ten, co-starring Bo Derek and written and directed by Blake Edwards, was one of a succession of Moore's romantic comedies. His biggest hit, Arthur, co-starred Liza Minnelli and featured Sir John Gielgud as his long-suffering valet. In the film Lovesick Moore plays a Manhattan psychiatrist "who falls in love with a nubile patient and finds happiness under the ironic eyes of Sigmund Freud's fantasy-ghost (Alec Guinness)" wrote Gerald Clarke in Time. His Lovesick co-star was Elizabeth McGovern. Unfaithful co-star Nastassia Kinski played the wife of Moore's conductor character. Many films followed including narrations of children's films and documentaries. Moore's book Off-Beat: A Musical Companion is a "crazy patchwork" spanning "both serious and popular musical worlds," according to Carol J. Binkowski in Library Journal. Binkowski said Moore's anecdotes "are the real highlight." The importance of Moore's music is obvious when he says "Having a piano nearby is an ever present box of delights in which I can always dip my hand." He makes extensive concert appearances, including performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Moore has also made many musical recordings, often with popular rock and jazz musicians and singers. Of Moore's lifestyle Clarke wrote "Moore lives modestly by Hollywood standards. His airy beach house, which was once owned by Rudy Valle, is comfortable but not luxurious. . . . He plays classical music . . . works out scores for movies. . . . is content with this kind of `self-expression.'" Clarke said Moore is "one of the few stars who admit to loving Hollywood parties; he enjoys dinner with six or eight guests, and he likes going to the movies as well as making them. One of his main goals still is to make people laugh, and that will probably never change." In autumn 2001, Moore became a Commander of the British Empire in a ceremony presided over by Queen Elizabeth II. Earlier in that year, Moore, who suffers from progressive supranuclear palsy, released a new CD, Dudley Moore--Live from an Aircraft Hanger. He succumbed to the disease in March of 2002. 1964 Beyond the Fringe (TV) 1965 Not Only...But Also (TV series) 1966 The Wrong Box 1967 Bedazzled 1968 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthiaalso Writer 1969 Monte Carlo or Bust 1969 The Bed Sitting Room 1972 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 1975 When Things Were Rotten (TV series) 1978 Foul Play 1978 The Hound of the Baskervillesalso Writer 1979 10 1980 Wholly Moses 1981 Arthur 1982 Six Weeks 1983 Romantic Comedy 1983 Lovesick 1984 Best Defense 1984 Unfaithfully Yours 1984 Micki + Maude 1985 Santa Claus 1987 Like Father, Like Son 1988 Arthur 2: On the Rocks 1990 Crazy People 1992 Blame it on the Bellboy 1993 Dudley (TV series) 1993 The Pickle 1994 Daddy's Girls (TV series) 1994 Parallel Lives (TV) 1996 A Weekend in the Country (TV)