DUDLEY MOORE STRIKES FAMILIAR CHORD IN SITCOM
Roanoke Times newspaper news Virginia
Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: SATURDAY, April 10, 1993 TAG: 9304100327 SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-16 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium

DUDLEY MOORE STRIKES FAMILIAR CHORD IN SITCOM

CBS will see whether the third of its spring sitcom pilots will fly when it introduces "Dudley," starring Dudley Moore, Friday night (at 8:30 p.m. on WDBJ-Channel 7).

The series comes on the heels of Penny Marshall's "A League of Their Own," and "Good Advice," starring Treat Williams and Shelley Long.

This week's series might as well be called "Dudley and Fred." Moore plays Dudley Bristol, a New York cabaret pianist who has been living, he says, "a fairly rambunctious life on my own."

But his ex-wife, Laraine (Joanna Cassidy), has been having a struggle bringing up their 14-year-old son, Fred.

"Basically this is the story of `I really don't know what to do with him, and he needs a firm masculine influence in his life,' " Moore said. "I have absolutely no idea how to bring up a son."

Thus Fred, who has a propensity for staying out all night, comes to live with his father. There he meets Marta (Lupe Ontiveros), Dudley's Hispanic housekeeper, and Harold Willers (Joel Brooks), owner of the New York club where Dudley performs.

Fred, played by Harley Cross, "does seem a very ancient person for his age," said Moore. "In fact, he's very ancient, compared to me, very mature. It's sort of surprising - one has to remember he's only a young chap. I have to grow up to liaise with my son."

To "liaise"? Well, Moore is an Oxford graduate. And the unusual infinitive is a British colloquialism.

In some ways, diminutive Dudley Bristol is much like 5-foot-2 Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, musician/composer and the father of Patrick, 17, whose mother is actress Tuesday Weld.

Moore has kept his stage, film and musical careers going for close to 40 years, ever since he made his stage debut with the Oxford University drama society.

Born and raised in Dagenham, England, the son of an electrician, Dudley Stuart John Moore grew up studying violin, harpsichord, organ and piano. He holds two degrees from Magdalen College at Oxford, one in English earned in 1957 and one in music composition in 1958.

That year he traveled to the United States with the Vic Lewis Orchestra and toured military installations. He stayed on to perform as a jazz pianist at the Duplex in New York's Greenwich Village.

Returning to London, Moore struggled for a while, composing an original ballet, writing toothpaste jingles that aired in the West Indies and working as resident composer for the Royal Court Theater. Then he spent a year touring with the John Dankworth Band and singer Cleo Laine.

He made his stage debut in 1960 in a pre-Monty Python satirical revue, "Beyond the Fringe," taking it from the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland to London and then to Broadway.

Moore and fellow "Fringe" player Peter Cook, also an Oxford graduate, formed a comedy act. They went on to appear with a sterling cast of British actors - John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock - in "The Wrong Box" in 1966, a Victorian farce.

Since that film debut, Moore has made more than two dozen movies, most of them light comedies. He also composed scores for some and made several albums.

On this side of the Atlantic, he is best known for "10" (1979) with Bo Derek and "Arthur" (1981). In that film, his co-stars were Liza Minnelli and John Gielgud, who won a supporting-actor Oscar for his role as Arthur's valet. Moore also won a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination. He executive-produced its 1988 sequel, "Arthur 2: On the Rocks," but that one did not live up to the original.

American audiences may think of him mainly as a lovable comedian, but Moore's true love is music. "Dudley" will give him a chance to combine those talents.

Trained in both violin and piano, Moore formed a jazz trio early in his career. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Chamber Society, at New York's Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Art, and with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He also appeared in the Los Angeles Opera Association's production of "The Mikado." And he was host of and played a little in Showtime's series "Orchestra!"