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Actor Dudley Moore Dies at 66

Aired March 27, 2002 - 14:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Longtime actor Dudley Moore has died at the age of 66. Moore suffered for years from an incurable brain disorder. Again, he passed away at his home in New Jersey earlier this morning. Sherri Sylvester now, on the life of the British-born actor, Dudley Moore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DUDLEY MOORE, ACTOR: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dudley Moore made his film debut with that line in the 1966 comedy "The Wrong Box," co-starring with his longtime stage partner, Peter Cook. Moore came to comedy by way of music when he was hired to play with Cook and the Cambridge Comedy Review, "Beyond the Fringe." And he turned out to be every bit as funny as the other three members.

Dudley Moore's personal comic style and his songwriting first came to the screen in 1967's "Bedazzled," in which Moore sells his soul to a devilish Peter Cook, but finds his wishes never quite work out the way he thought.

"The Leaping Nuns" is another Dudley Moore composition. But mod had Moore (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to disco, as Dudley Moore became a fixture on American screens. A supporting role in "Foul Play" led to his breakthrough film, playing his usual role, a composer, in this case coping with mid-life crisis. In "10," Moore managed to be charming and comic, even when his behavior wasn't admiral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "10")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE ACTOR: You better take it easy. Pain pills and alcohol don't mix.

MOORE: You could have fooled me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

You can get away with murder. You can get away with anything. You can do anything, you can be anything, if -- as long as people -- as long as they're not given that moment to analyze things too much, you know. And then it can become mildly embarrassing, I suppose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's so funny?

MOORE: Sometimes I just think funny things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Moore will be remembered best playing the drunk millionaire Arthur Bach in "Arthur," which made the most of his ability to charm the audience out of a judgment of his character's behavior, and earned him an Academy Award nomination. There was an "Arthur 2," but Moore spent most of the '80s playing roles of declining quality. Films like "Lovesick" and "Crazy People," and "Best Defense." If he wasn't playing the piano in the movies, he was playing it instead of make movies.

MOORE: I guess I've careened about the place being mildly entertaining and playing the piano, all my life, I suppose. I don't know -- I don't know that people who start their lives that way would find many alternatives, actually.

SYLVESTER: He was as familiar with the high and low notes of his life as he was with the notes of his keyboard. Each of his four marriages failed. And Moore spent his later years battling progressive supernuclear palsy, a degenerative brain disorder.

Queen Elizabeth named Dudley Moore commander of the Order of the British Empire, in honor of his career as a comic actor and musician.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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