Try typing “Dudley Moore, piano” into an Internet search engine. Yes, that Dudley Moore. Before the biographies and his life and trials as an actor, you will find video clips of the actor sitting in front of a piano. Dudley Moore played the piano; he wasn’t just a star playing to some music in his spare time, either. In addition to being a screen legend, Dudley Moore was a truly accomplished pianist who released 11 albums as part of the Dudley Moore Trio.
Dudley’s childhood was not easy. He was much shorter than friends of the same age. He was born with a clubfoot, which was also a source of ridicule before it was surgically corrected. The shy Dudley found solace in music, and he quickly took up the piano and then the violin at a remarkably young age. He loved the piano and the organ and, in his teens, he played only for church weddings. His talent for music was further developed at the music school he attended on weekends. Dudley proved to be an excellent student at the end of high school and won a scholarship to Magdelen College at the University of Oxford.
It was during this time that he met Peter Cook, his friend and co-star on Beyond the Fringe, which became a highly successful comedy show in the early 1960s. While taking Music and Composition classes at Magdelin College, Dudley He also became a huge fan of jazz music, joining a small jazz group to hone his skills as a jazz pianist and composer.
Dudley’s Beyond the Fringe co-star Peter Cook invested in a property in the early 1960s, turning a building into a cabaret club called The Establishment. There, Dudley played in a jazz band with Chris Karan and Pete McGurk. The three eventually formed the famous Dudley Moore Trio with Dudley on piano, Chris on drums and Pete on bass.
Dudley continued his acting career alongside Peter Cook. When Dudley was offered his own show in the mid-1960s, he invited Peter to appear as one of the characters. The chemistry between them was so good that Peter’s character became a regular fixture. The show, called “Not Only But Too,” became hugely popular and the duo soon moved on to feature films. They co-starred in Bedazzled in 1967, for which Dudley also wrote the musical score. Later, Dudley moved to Hollywood and starred in films alongside big-screen greats like Goldie Hawn, Liza Minelli, and Geraldine Fitzgerald. During the 70s and 80s, Dudley became the movie star and Hollywood legend that his fans know today.
Music never took a backseat in Dudley’s life. In addition to writing soundtracks for Hollywood movies and taking major roles in many of them, he continued to record and perform with the Dudley Moore Trio. His first album, The Other Side of Dudley Moore, was released in 1966 and was quickly followed by his second album, Genuine Dud, released in the same year. Dudley’s love for pianist Oscar Peterson shone through in music.
The early albums combined Dudley’s classically trained piano with the freer feel of jazz and blues. On the Bedazzled soundtrack album, Dudley showed off his incredible talents as a pianist and songwriter. He brought in the additional talents of Roy Willox on flute, Bob Efford on tenor sax, Harry Klein on baritone sax, Jock Bain on trombone and John Sharp on violin. Their last album, The Music of Dudley Moore, was released in 1978 as a compilation of songs from the trio’s albums and Bedazzled’s music.
After starring in 24 films with a brilliant career as one of Hollywood’s most accomplished jazz pianists, Dudley Stuart John Moore died in 2002 after suffering from a degenerative brain disorder. He was 66 years old.