Diminutive 'Cuddly Dudley', (he stood 5ft.2ins in his socks), was an East End Cockney from Dagenham; the son of a railway worker who crossed the tracks to carve a memorable niche for himself as an entertainer, jazz and classical pianist and composer and, finally, star of a number of Hollywood films that he debuted with 10 in 1979. It was a measure of his remarkable talent that he carved out separate careers in each of these fields of entertainment.
Dudley Moore's launch pad was an organ scholarship to the hallowed university halls of Magdalene College, Oxford, where he began writing music and performing cabaret. Leaving Oxford in 1958 he made an instant name for himself as a jazz musician, performing with Johnny Dankworth and touring the US with the Vic Lewis Band.
On his return from tour Dudley Moore was invited to join Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in an Edinburgh Festival Review Beyond The Fringe. It took the Festival by storm and was transferred to London's West End where it ran for four years, transforming English comedy and satire in the process. His historic partnership with Peter Cook followed naturally from Beyond The Fringe and their classic television duo, the characters Dud and Pete raised the pair of them to the status of comedy icons of the 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic. From there it was a short step to Hollywood where he became an unlikely heartthrob, acquiring a string of tall beautiful wives and gaining an Oscar nomination in the 1981 film Arthur.
He was struck down by his progressively debilitating brain condition in the late 1990s. It left him unable to play his beloved piano, increasingly impaired his vision, speech and movement. It closed his career when it caused him to be dropped from the Barbara Streisand film The Mirror because he was unable to remember his lines. He was just well enough to savour the honor of being made a Commander of the British Empire in The Queen's 2001 Birthday Honours List. He was flown to London in November of that year to be invested with the Honour by The Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. He was by then in a wheelchair and hardly able to speak.
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