Talented actor and comedian Dudley Moore was born April 19, 1935 in Dagenham, London. Dudley was only 5 foot 2 inches tall, but his impressive swagger and comedic talents made him a hit with the ladies and earned him the nickname “The Sex Thimble.” Moore was an active performer until his death in 2002 at the age of 66.

Dudley’s story has become something of a legend where the actor is from. Being born to a lower working class family and raised in the notoriously meager East London, Moore always showed great determination in his life, overcoming his status, his height and a deformed left foot to lead an extremely successful life.

Although Moore had developed a joking personality at an early age, he didn’t necessarily aspire to be a comedian. Instead, Dudley wanted to become a musician. He began at an early age as a chorister and organist at church before earning a degree in music composition from Oxford and becoming an accomplished pianist.

After befriending comic Peter Cooke, Dudley finally had an opportunity to bottle up his unique sense of humor and put it on display as part of the four-man comedy show Beyond the Fringe. This Monty Python-like show played for two years in London before becoming a fixture on Broadway. It’s easily considered the best such assembly to come out of the UK.

Along with friend Peter Cooke, Moore went on to form a duo and performed a handful of stage shows. Dudley showed a lot more to critics than just a short, goofy and quick-witted young man. He proved he could act, and soon some offers for big movie roles came pouring in.

After modest success in some films and television spots, Moore made the move to Hollywood to pursue acting full time. In 1978, he finally made his big splash with the comedy Foul Play, where he starred alongside Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn. In 1979, Moore’s career really took off after starring with Bo Derek in Blake Edwards’s 10.

Dudley tried to quickly capitalize on the success of 10 by jumping into a poorly produced feature titled Wholly Moses. The movie didn’t do well, but instead of letting this dampen his spirits, Moore pushed on and released Arthur the following year. Arthur became known as quintessential Moore, and it was also his coming-out party for more serious acting.

In the prime of his acting career, Moore was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a Parkinson’s-like disease that limited Dudley’s ability to remember lines and give his stereotypical sharp, witty performances. Because of the disease, he focused more on playing the piano and writing original music in his latter years.

Dudley acted in movies up until the early 1990s and even then continued to make an occasional visit on television. Among some of his more popular movies were Arthur and Arthur 2: On the Rocks, Crazy People, Like Father Like Son, Santa Claus, Unfaithfully Yours and Micki + Maude.