Thanks for the laughs, mate! Arthur will always be one of my all-time favorite movies.

I was just astonished to learn that Dudley Moore made his home in the town where I grew up...Plainfield, New Jersey. A pretty modest suburb as a whole. There was one semi-exclusive area on the East Side, but it's not the type of town you'd expect a celebrity of his stature to buy a home. A friend suggested it might be because no one expected to see him there, so he wasn't noticed in public and had a freedom of movement he wouldn't have had in LA, NYC, or London. An it's convenient to NYC (just 30 miles away).

And you're so right, Max...to be falsely pummeled by the press for a horrible illness like that without apology is beyond reproach. What a revolting thing to do to a person. I was highly upset when I learned they did that to that poor man...he was suffering enough through the loss of his mobility and the loss of his talent. He will be missed.

I saw him first in Beyond the Fringe with Jonathan Miller, Peter Cooke and Alan Bennet. I had never laughed so much in my whole life. They approached "taboo" topics with great verve and humour - comedy was never quite the same again. I think one could claim that they did for the comedy stage what the goons did to radio - and the two teams had a lot in common, of course.

Another one gone, and sadly missed.

Here's a good recap of his career from a British point of view:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/27/moore.tributes.reut/

Whilst looking up Dudley Moore on http://www.imdb.com I came across this quote from Blackadder the third:

Oh, I'm sorry sir. I'm inuspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctious to have caused you such pericumbobulations.
Edmund Blackadder, Esq

Has tsuwm met his match??!!

I see that Milton Berle has shuffled off this mortal coil as well. That makes it the frood, the mad and the buggy in the past few weeks ... 2002, a year in which, if you are a comic, you should find a bomb shelter to live in!

Every one of the "Not Only but Also" shows that he did together with Peter Cook was hilarious and a joy to watch, the Pete and Dud conversations in particular. What will always stay in my memory, however, is the sketch where Dudley played the role of an out of work one-legged actor applying for the role of Tarzan. He and Peter Cook milked it dry in the way that John Cleese milked the dead parrot sketch. Two classics.

Wow, I had not heard about Dudley Moore dying until I logged onto AWADtalk just now....What did he die of? people are referring to whatever-it-was so obliquely, I still don't know....

My fave Dud and Pete scene is the Frog and Peach Restaurant....! in which Dud played a reporter, interviewing an old colonel about his restaurant on the moors (parking wasn't a problem since so many cars were lost to quicksand/bogs/mires).

Dud: You opened up (just after? during? I forget which!) the war, didn't you?

Pete: Yes. Bad business, that war.

Dud: (supressing a smile) Yes, I think a lot of people thought so.

Pete: Yes, but I wrote a lettah.

Those of USn's not fortunate enough to have been around in the UK at the time of 'Beyond the Fringe' and 'The Goon Show' are, however, latterly blessed by NPR's weekly offering "Weekend Radio" (produced in Cleveland, of all places) where skits from same are regularly run. That's where I first heard the Tarzan skit and was amazed (having known little of Dudley Moore prior to that) to learn he was the auditioner in question.

PS: Two weeks after Spike Milligan died earlier this year, "Weekend Radio" devoted half a program to him.

Mr Moore died from pneumonia, a complication of progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and incurable brain disorder. During the onset of the disease a few years ago, when he first experienced difficulties in speech and coordination, rumors circulated that he was chronically drunk.

My favorite Dudley Moore work -- and one of my favorite movies of all time -- is Bedazzled. He and Peter Cook were the best comic duo.

Thanks, Sparteye.

Bastard press.

Here's an excellent, detailed story from the Newark Star-Ledger, a good New Jersey newspaper that covers Plainfield and other areas of North and Central Jersey. It explains how a couple he befriended in '87 (she a NY Times critic and concert pianist)
encouraged him to move in with their family in their Plainfield home when he began showing symptoms of his illness in '97, and how he coped with his final few years (and a good career bio, too):

http://www.nj.com/living/ledger/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1017333600159790.xml

Milton Berle (Uncle Miltie) is also a sad loss...a real TV pioneer. But since his career peaked before I was old enough to appreciate it, I'm much more moved by the loss of Dudley.

"Everything in threes," so they say. Renowned director Billy Wilder has also died...Some Like It Hot is definitely in my top 5 favorite films of all-time, maybe #1! Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17, The Apartment, and many others...need I say more? You can certainly say that they don't make them like that anymore...classics all!

"Everything in threes," so they say. Renowned director Billy Wilder has also died.

And all three such great talents. I heard recently that at Milton Berle's peak 4 out of 5 televisions in the country were tuned into his show -- an 80 rating! I also didn't realize I was such a Billy Wilder fan! When I heard the list of his film credits I was amazed that one person could be behind so many great, yet very different films. Some Like It Hot and Double Indemnity both make my top ten.

The thing about Milton Berle was that he had an enormous impact on the televison audiences of the late 40's and 50's, and on that medium's emergence. But since his shows were done live with no taped record whatsoever, he fell out of familiarity with succeeding generations, unlike Jack Benny and others who resonated as icons for decades after their careers peaked, because reruns of their taped shows were replayed for generations of new fans. Same thing happened with Your Show of Shows, with Sid Cesar and Imogene Coca (and written by such future illuminaries in comedy as Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and Mel Brooks)...most of the shows aired live. So all that great work is lost forever. There was also a historic sitcom that predated I Love Lucy, that was lost due to no taped record. (I just read this article recently...this show was BIG, but I'll have to LIU...it's the "short-term" that goes first, you know...[sigh-e])