Film This article is more than 24 years oldNow Dudley confronts his demons
This article is more than 24 years oldTV audience of millions watches as comic reveals fears of imminent deathIn his early years as an entertainer, Dudley Moore would amuse his audiences with a rendition of Beethoven's Pathétique - as played by a pianist losing his memory. Bursts of manic tinkling would be interspersed with lengthening bouts of puzzled hesitation and baffled confusion that eventually descended into musical anarchy.
It was an amiable, though not necessarily hilarious, routine that perfectly combined Moore's twin talents: as a comic actor blessed with impish charm, and as a pianist of considerable talent.
Today, that Pathétique performance has come to haunt the Dagenham-born star - as he revealed to American interviewer Barbara Walters on her 20-20 programme on ABC TV last week. 'I so loved playing and now I can listen but ...' Then he stopped, his hands open in front of him, staring at them in grief.
It was a deeply unsettling interview in which Moore disclosed for the first time, in a slurred and hesitant voice, that he fully understands his fate. 'I think I am going to die,' he mumbled, propping himself up with a walking stick, pausing and seeming frequently to lose the thread of his thoughts. 'Um... I don't know... I don't think it's going to be, umm... pleasant,' he told Walters.
Moore is suffering from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare neurological disorder related to Parkinson's Disease, which took doctors four years to diagnose. Early symptoms include slurred speech, confusion, falling over and difficulty in swallowing, which can cause victims to drown in their own saliva. 'Choking to death must be awful,' said Moore, now aged 64. 'I don't find anything comforting, although my mood is fine now, but...', and he again faltered into silence.
Moore's appearance on Walters' show is his first in public since his diagnosis. Wearing a baggy blue woolly cardigan, he said: 'I don't feel cheated or bitter. It was good that I had my career before this happened and I did 10 [his 1979 film hit with Bo Derek] and Arthur, and I hope people remember and love me in those roles.'
In Britain, Moore, the son of a typist and a railway electrician who won a music scholarship to Oxford, is best remembered as Peter Cook's cuddly sidekick on their TV series Not Only... But Also . In the USA, however, he is famed for his romantic comedy leads in films such as the 1981 Hollywood comedy Arthur in which he played a loveable millionaire lush, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination, and provided him with another performance that has come back to haunt him. The staggering, slurred antics of Arthur began to be replayed by Moore himself. The tabloids labelled him an alcoholic, and despite the assurances of his friends that they had never seen him drink to excess, they reported his falls, outbursts, domestic upsets and car crashes.
Moore said: 'It's amazing that Arthur has invaded my body to the point that I have [seemed] to become him. That's the way people looked at me. But I want people to know I am not intoxicated and... that I am going through this disease as well as I can. But I'm trapped in this body and there's nothing I can do about it.'
On the set of his last attempt at a film, The Mirror Has Two Faces directed by Barbara Streisand in 1996, he was sacked for forgetting his lines. But long-time friend Blake Edwards, the Hollywood director and husband of British singer-actress Julie Andrews, said Moore was always a professional. When he was fired, Moore knew his acting career was over; the trouble was he still did not know why his mental powers were failing.
Divorced three times, from British actress Suzy Kendall, American actress Tuesday Weld and model Brogan Lane, in 1994, he wed Californian Nicole Rothschild. The couple had a son, now four, but there was violence between them and Moore was once arrested. He has now left California and lives in New Jersey with the former New York Times music critic and pianist Rena Fruchter and her composer husband and is currently undergoing therapy at the same institute that treated the paralysed Superman star, Christopher Reeve.
Fruchter, who reviewed a Moore concert many years ago as a doubter and left marvelling at his musicianship, joined Moore on the interview to prompt him when he groped for words, and was seen supporting him as they walked near her home. Moore called her 'a saint' and added: 'She has an endless compassion for me, and... I just feel... er feel, she is extraordinary in that way... I can't think of anyone else taking care of me.'
Indeed, it was Fruchter who first realised that Moore's problems were caused by something far more sinister than occasional lapses of concentration, or alleged bouts of drinking. On a 1996 Australian tour, when both played the piano, she realised his deterioration as a pianist was organic and fundamental and certainly not related to over-indulgence. Not long afterwards, doctors succeeded in diagnosing his condition. Moore's past had finally caught up with him.
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