Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait

Revealing and heartwrenching account of the artist's paradigm shift from celebrity persona to everyman who ultimately finds peace within himself through his perilous battle with PSP(Progressive Supranuclear Palsy), as recalled by colleague and close personal friend Rena Fuchter. In 'An Intimate Portrait', Fuchter, a contributing writer for the New York Times and professional concert pianist, recounts her complicated relationship with Moore that took her from being a professional colleague to his traveling companion/confidante and ultimately, to being his primary caretaker. Fuchter met Dudley Moore in the late nineteen eighties, during a period when Moore the famous actor was transitioning away from Hollywood and returning to his roots as a virtuosic concert pianist and prolific composer of jazz, classical and cross-over styles. A fruitful professional relationship between the two musicians soon followed. By the early nineties, the duo were touring the concert symphony circuit together, tackling some of the most challenging piano concertos ever composed. At the age of sixty, Dudley Moore was reemerging as the charismatic virtuoso pianist/entertainer he had always threatened to be, and seemed to be regaining much-needed momentum in his dysfunctional life. But it was not to be, as destiny would deal Dudley Moore a difficult blow, from which he would never recover, and the clearly fated friendship between Fuchter and Moore would be put to the ultimate test.... - J.A.M.

If you want to know what really happened with Dudley Moore from the late 80's until his death, you've got to read this! Too many people believe tabloids and make their judgments from what they read in the newsstands. Read this and weep. I did.

Dudley Moore was an actor, a comedian, and the husband to a perfectionist wife: he left a promising career in jazz piano to become a comedian, then an actor - and his personal life was fraught with illness and trials. Prior fans of Moore who are familiar with him through a single facet of his acting or comedy career will welcome an opportunity to get to know him better in Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait, by an author who was a music columnist, pianist, and performer along with Moore.

This is a book you will really look forward to reading, especially if you have had the chance to see one or more of Dudley Moore's movies ---from the everyman dreams of "10" to the wacky conductor of "Foul Play." Also to see him on stage or hear his talented piano playing. I wanted to laugh again, and again at Dudley, the comic. But the author, fellow musician Rena Fruchter, carefully weaves in the pain and suffering in this short man's too-short life: "The tragedy is that Dudley Moore had so much left to do, to give, when his life was taken from him at the age of 66," she writes. And an extra dimension for an author and even for a friend--Dudley spent the last five years of his life with Fruchter and her family. She held his hands when he died in March, 2002, with some of his own music playing in the background. But Fruchter is able to give us a balanced portrait of this complex man, his four wives and ups and downs along the way. I kept wanting more of the sheer joy of Dudley, which fellow comic Eric Idle touches on in the Foreward --where he thanks Dudley, or "Dud" as he calls him, "for just being you." It is often written that one has to suffer a lot to be truly funny. Dudley followed that path. We thank him for all the laughter and music, and are glad to read in this excellent work that toward the end Dudley learned to accept himself and found strength and awareness...and also peace. We miss you Dudley and thank you Rena for preserving so much of the man and his life in this book.

Intimate Portrait offers a personal account of Dudley Moore's struggle with illness. The author's first hand account provides a touching portrait of a person who simultaneously experienced fear and hope, courage and defeat, yet never gave up. It was moving and clearly a close friends final tribute to her best friend. I would highly recommend it.