Dudley Moore

His acting has been compared to Chaplin and Keaton, critics have lauded his music, virtuosity and his sidesplitting performances have set new standards for fun. Dudley Moore: An Informal Biography examines the life and work of this comic genius and world-famous classical pianist. Lavishly illustrated, this first-ever biography covers Moore's long, tough climb to fame and fortune, his triumphs and failures on the British stage and BBC network, his offscreen romances and marriages, his string of box-office hits and failures and his dramatic fall from the top as Hollywood's hottest sex symbol.

For this authorized biography, the BBC's Hollywood correspondent has had extraordinary access to all aspects of Dudley Moore's life as an actor comedian, musician, and composer. From his fondness for jazz to his film success in 10 and Arthur, Paskin tells it all. of color photos.

Rena Fruchter was Dudley's concert piano partner, and the friend who looked after him in the final years of his life until his death at the age of 66. This is her intimate portrait of the extraordinarily brilliant, complex character that was Dudley Moore. During the last ten years of his life Dudley changed. He stepped off the podium and into real life. Physically life was difficult, professionally it was turbulent, but during his final years he blossomed, and in the midst of his illness from the debilitating effects of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, he found peace. Rena writes beautifully of Dudley's final years but also takes us back through his life story - conveying his inimitable talent, humour and vibrancy; evoking the atmosphere of a working-class upbringing in 1940s Britain, life in 1950s London and his relationship with Peter Cook, and the excesses of 1980s LA. With style and precision she unravels his personality, looks back at his childhood and career, weaving a moving and compelling story of a unique man.

Examines every side of the complex man of actor and jazz pianist Dudley Moore, from his haunting neuroses and broken marriages to his extraordinary talent and success.

Magnanimous in charm, diminutive of stature, turbulent in love - Dudley Moore, a permanent fixture in gossip columns and female affections, has been one of Hollywood's most unlikely sex symbols. Four marriages, countless lovers and romantic links with many of the world's most beautiful women have proved that, like fine wine, his appeal merely becomes stronger by the year. Dudley Moore had an isolated childhood as the clubfooted son of a Dagenham railwayman. He was loved for the downtrodden part he played in his long-running, ground-breaking comic partnership with Peter Cook and the hit roles in 10 and Arthur that propelled him to superstardom. He had steamy, stormy marriages to Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld, Brogan Lane and Nicole Rothschild. He is now, sadly, suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

A very funny show about some unlikely subjects, including a one-legged actor applying for the role of Tarzan, an in-depth interview with an unimpressed shepherd who witnessed the Nativity, and a French singer who misunderstands an Anglo-Saxon vulgarity and composes a song around it.

Received document entitled: EXHIBITS IN SUPPORT OF PETITION FOR WRIT

This work traces the life of the diminutive musician, actor, commedian and sex symbol, Dudley Moore. It charts his early years as a working-class boy from Dagenham, his health problems, and his scholarship to Oxford, providing insights into his private life and inner angst and restlessness. Much to the dismay of tall men the world over, Dudley Moore has risen to become an international film star, media magnet and Hollywood heart-throb without losing a trace of the lovable English charm that propelled him to stardom in the 1960s.

Barbra Paskin was the late Dudley Moore's official biographer, having known him well for many years. In this latest book, she provides an affectionate celebration of this extraordinary comic and musical talent, perhaps the best-loved major star of his or any generation. Although it rehearses his extraordinary life and career from Beyond the Fringe with the Cambridge Footlights, followed by his long association with Peter Cook that produced such immortal programmes as Not Only . . . But Also, to Hollywood stardom with films like 10 and Arthur, it is more than a mere biography. Uniquely, Dear Dudley also publishes for the first time the many kind, comforting, supportive, and often extremely funny letters that the author obtained from leading celebrities to mark Dudley's sixty-fourth birthday, from the Rolling Stones to Michael Caine, Billy Joel to Alan Bennett, Goldie Hawn to Woody Allen, all of whom have given permission for them to be reproduced in the book.

His acting has been compared to Chaplin and Keaton, critics have lauded his music, virtuosity and his sidesplitting performances have set new standards for fun. Dudley Moore: An Informal Biography examines the life and work of this comic genius and world-famous classical pianist. Lavishly illustrated, this first-ever biography covers Moore's long, tough climb to fame and fortune, his triumphs and failures on the British stage and BBC network, his offscreen romances and marriages, his string of box-office hits and failures and his dramatic fall from the top as Hollywood's hottest sex symbol.