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List Price: $14.00 | | Publisher: Ebury Press
Salesrank: 930725
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| Our Price: $8.25 |
| Used Price: $2.99 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
The public persona of Dudley Moore was many-sided: the short, anxious member of the comic duo Pete and Dud; the hard-drinking millionaire in the phenomenally successful Arthur; the gifted concert pianist and composer; the working-class kid who won a scholarship to Oxford. His life spanned an era of brilliant British comedy and an extraordinary decade of success—and excess—in Hollywood. After a debilitating illness forced him off the stage into real life, he struggled to survive; paradoxically, he also found inner peace. Looking back on the final 15 years of his life, Rena Fruchter gives us a loving and unflinching portrait of her friend Dudley Moore.
Dudley Moore: An Intimate Portrait Reviews:
The truth sets one free 
2007-11-22 - 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.
Fans of Moore will welcome an opportunity to get to know him better 
2005-11-08 - 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.
Dudley Moore and this book rate a "10" 
2005-08-24 - 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.
A Pleasingly Intimate Portrait 
2005-07-21 - 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.