British Comedian Dudley Moore Dies at Age 66
By SARAH TIPPIT
Reuters
LOS ANGELES (March 27) - Diminutive British-born comedian Dudley Moore, who became one of Hollywood's most unlikely sex symbols thanks to his starring role in ''10,'' died Wednesday of pneumonia after a long battle against a rare brain disorder, his Los Angeles spokeswoman said.
The 66-year-old Moore died at the Plainfield, New Jersey, home of his caregiver surrounded by family and friends and a private funeral service is planned.
A spokeswoman said his he died of pneumonia as a complication of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a rare degenerative Parkinson's-like disease that affects the brain and causes slurred speech, problems with walking, imbalance and difficulty in swallowing.
He announced in September 1999 that he had PSP but made light of the condition, saying, ''One person in 100,000 suffers from this disease and I am also aware that there 100,000 members of my union, the Screen Actors Guild, who are working every day. I think therefore it is in some way considerate of me that I have taken on this disease for myself, thus protecting the remaining 99,999 SAG members from this fate.''
But the reality for Moore, as he later said in a television interview, was that he felt trapped in his own body and looked at death as a horrible experience yet to come.
Moore's longtime agent and friend, Lou Pitt, said: ''His humor, his joy and his passion to make people laugh will be sorely and deeply missed.''
'SEX THIMBLE'
A jazz pianist as well as an actor and comic, Moore became one of Hollywood's most improbable sex symbols in the 1980s thanks to his starring role opposite sultry Bo Derek in Blake Edwards' comedy ''10'' in 1979. He called himself a ''sex thimble.''
The son of a typist and a railway electrician, Moore won a music scholarship to Oxford University where he joined Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical ''Beyond the Fringe'' revue which won great acclaim. Moore teamed up with Cook, forming a major comic duo and appearing together in such hit films as ''The Wrong Box'' (1966), ''Bedazzled'' (1967'') and ''The Bed-sitting Room'' (1969).
After meeting Moore in therapy in 1979, Blake Edwards decided to cast him in ''10'' where his role as George Webber, a composer and would-be middle-aged Romeo. He later earned two Golden Globe awards for his roles in ''Micki and Maude'' (1985) and for ''Arthur'' (1981) when his take on a drunken playboy opposite Liza Minnelli also won him an Oscar nomination.
Described by Oscar Peterson as one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, he was highly rated as a player and composer, writing film scores including ''Bedazzled.''
Born in Dagenham, east of London, the 5 foot 3 inch (1.60 metre) tall Moore attributed his success at both music and comedy to a childhood spent fending off bullies who teased him for his height and club foot.
''I think most comedians start off defending themselves with comedy,'' he said. ''Generally they feel inferior in some way. I certainly did feel inferior. Because of class, because of strength, because of height...I guess if I'd been able to hit somebody on the nose. I wouldn't have been a comic.''
TUMULTUOUS PERSONAL LIFE
Tabloid attention frequently focused on a tumultuous personal life, with a trail of four marriages to Suzy Kendal (1966-71), Tuesday Weld (1975-77), Brogan Lane (1988-92) and Nicole Rothschild (1994), the last ending in allegations of abuse. He has two sons, Patrick and Nicholas.
Moore has lived most of the past 25 years in the United States and said that after the death of Peter Cook in 1995 there was little reason to return to Britain.
He became increasingly withdrawn and said in the late 1990s that his interest was flagging. ''I'm sort of a little played out,'' Moore said his 60th year. ''I don't have the same urgency that I used to.''
Tabloid reports of falls, slurred speech, outbursts, domestic upsets and car crashes in the late 1990s -- later explained by his deteriorating health -- led to rumours of drink and drug abuse, and in 1999 he was seen falling on U.S. television during an interview with Barbara Walters.
Later that year Moore was diagnosed with PSP.
Media reports in June 2000 suggested he was trying an alternative coffee therapy, whereby caffeine is injected directly into the patient's forearm. In August 2000 he pulled out of treatment at the Kessler Institute in northern New Jersey, said to be deeply depressed because the disease is incurable.
Much of his fortune went on medical bills which also led to the sale of his Los Angeles home in February 2000.
He co-founded the charity Philadelphia's Music for All Seasons -- which brings concerts to nursing homes and hospitals -- and in 1999 launched the Dudley Moore Fund aimed at finding a cure for PSP.
Pre-Hollywood ''Cuddly Dudley's'' zany, often improvised comedy, had a cult following. Tossing his hair back, he famously declared: ''I don't want to see lust and rape and incest and sodomy in the theater. I can get all that at home.
A U.S. magazine once voted him the man most women wanted to sleep with and he dated a succession of tall, statuesque women. After 20 years of psychotherapy, he said he no longer felt ''the pressure to be funny any more: I can be what I feel like -- entertaining or lugubrious.
Reut15:18 03-27-02
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