{"id":5364,"date":"2026-08-15T19:05:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5364"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:05:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:05:54","slug":"hollywood-flashback-when-dudley-moore-intoxicated-audiences-in-arthur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5364","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Flashback: When Dudley Moore Intoxicated Audiences in \u2018Arthur\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\n

\n\tA toast is in order for Arthur<\/em>, which became a comedy classic despite a quiet release 45 years ago. After penning Carl Reiner\u2019s 1978 comedy The One and Only<\/em> starring Henry Winkler, Steve Gordon was hired to direct his own Arthur<\/em> script for Orion. Gordon initially considered George Segal and John Belushi for the title role before casting Dudley Moore off the success of 10<\/em>, in which the actor starred opposite Bo Derek.<\/p>\n

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\nArthur<\/em> centers on alcoholic playboy Arthur Bach, who will be cut off from his family fortune unless he marries a woman he doesn\u2019t love, which becomes complicated when he falls for working-class Linda, played by Liza Minnelli. At the time, Moore praised the script for its barrage of jokes: \u201cTen laughs a page, instead of one laugh every 10 pages.\u201d Actress Anne DeSalvo, who played sex worker Gloria, tells THR<\/em> that Moore, a classically trained pianist, would warmly greet her on set. \u201cDudley would be playing the piano, and he\u2019d say, \u2018Good morning, Anne,\u2019 \u201d she recalls. \u201cHe was such a gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lead character was written as American, but Moore convinced Gordon to let him keep his British accent: \u201cSteve kept phoning me up and saying, \u2018Are you sure you can\u2019t do an American accent?\u2019 I told him if I tried, it would be the most distorted performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nArthur<\/em> hit theaters on July 17, 1981, with THR<\/em>\u2018s review extolling the \u201chilarious comedy\u201d and Moore\u2019s \u201cimpeccable timing.\u201d The film got off to a slow box office start amid marketing challenges, but word of mouth drew crowds for weeks to come, as Arthur<\/em> became the year\u2019s fourth-highest-grossing title. The film earned four Oscar nominations, winning for best supporting actor for John Gielgud as butler Hobson, plus Christopher Cross\u2019 main theme song, \u201cBest That You Can Do,\u201d co-written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager.<\/p>\n

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\n\tGordon died suddenly of a heart attack a year later at age 44, making Arthur<\/em> his only feature. Moore and Minnelli returned for a 1988 sequel, while a 2011 remake starred Russell Brand, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig and Helen Mirren, but neither matched the success of the original, which was named one of AFI\u2019s top 100 comedies.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoore, who died in 2002 at age 66 after battling progressive supranuclear palsy, once called Arthur his favorite role: \u201cI love the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThis story appeared in the Aug. 12 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The 1981 comedy \u2018Arthur\u2019 became a surprise summer hit with the fourth largest box office haul of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[891],"class_list":["post-5364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-hollywood-flashback"],"yoast_head":"\nHollywood Flashback: When Dudley Moore Intoxicated Audiences in \u2018Arthur\u2019 - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5364\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hollywood Flashback: When Dudley Moore Intoxicated Audiences in \u2018Arthur\u2019 - 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