Dudley Moore: More than “Arthur”

Dudley Moore, at left, with Liza Minelli in "Arthur" in 1981.

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082031/mediaviewer/rm785239040/

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He will always be kind of a soused but charming English man with some disarming charm, and a smart remark.

It’s Dudley Moore’s birthday today, and a chance to take a look back at his career.

The years before
To be honest, I really have not seen a lot of Dudley Moore films, yet he always just seemed to be there. I did not know his career dated back to 1961 and British movies.

The first time I ever saw him was in “Foul Play” in 1978. It was on the Sunday night movie on Channel 13, and I had to keep the volume down low on the TV so I didn’t keep my parents awake. It was a great murder mystery where Dudley Moore played opposite Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, trying to stop an assassination plot against the Pope. Moore plays a British womanizer who hits on Hawn.

Later that same year, Moore would play Dr. Watson in “Hound of the Baskervilles” opposite Peter Cook as “Sherlock Holmes”.

Then, in 1979, Moore had a North American breakout when he appeared opposite Bo Derek in “10”. Moore plays a middle-aged man infatuated with a young model he pursues to Mexico. The role also gave him status as a romantic leading man.

That new status would propel much of his career in the ‘80s.

Oscar-nominated
It was an inauspicious start to the new decade with “Wholly Moses!” in 1980, a biblical spoof where Moore plays a man misled to think he is a prophet of God.

Moore’s fortunes would change dramatically in 1981, when he played the title character in “Arthur”. He was a drunk millionaire in New York doomed to an arranged marriage to a wealthy heiress. Instead, he falls for a working glass woman from Queens played by Liza Minelli. The role earned Moore a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

That would be the peak of Moore’s career in the ‘80s and beyond.

The rest of the decade
Moore appeared opposite Mary Tyler Moore in the drama “Six Weeks” in 1982, then in a string of romantic comedies. It started with “Lovesick” where he played opposite Elizabeth McGovern in 1983; then “Romantic Comedy” opposite Mary Steenburgen also in 1983; and “Unfaithfully Yours” in 1984 opposite Nastassja Kinski, Armand Assante and Albert Brooks.

He was also in two more movies in 1984. In “Best Defense” Moore played an engineer developing a targeting system on a tank for the United States Army. In “Micki and Maude”, he plays a man married to two women played by Ann Reinking and Amy Irving. For his efforts, Moore won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy/Musical.

He closed out the decade with “Santa Claus: The Movie” in 1985, where he plays one of Santa’s elves; “Like Father Like Son” in 1987 where Kirk Cameron played his son and they changed bodies; and “Arthur 2: On the Rocks” in 1988, which was a disappointing sequel that he would later distance himself from.

The years after
Dudley Moore only appeared in a handful of movies, before his final film role in “The Mighty Kong” in 1998. I did not realized he had a degenerative brain disorder. He died in 2002 of pneumonia resulting from tht brain disorder.

He was just 66 years old.

Parting thoughts
Dudley Moore is another unique part of the 1980s. He was an odd sort of romantic lead, English, and not quite like anyone else. I can’t quite think of someone now anything like Dudley Moore to be honest.

I guess the reason I think of him as always soused with a smart remark is because that was his character in “Arthur”. It was pretty much the only major role I saw him in. I also saw him in “Foul Play”, but that was a minor role.

Never did I realize he was as prolific and decorated an actor as he was.

Dudley Moore was much more than “Arthur”.