Ron Moody

Ron Moody
Ron Moody, 1975
Born	Ronald Moodnick (1924-01-08) 8 January 1924 (age 88) London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, composer, singer, writer
Years active	1953–present
Spouse	Therese Blackbourn (1985-present)
Children	6

Ron Moody (born Ronald Moodnick; 8 January 1924)^[1] is an English actor.

Early life

Moody was born in Tottenham, North London,^[2][3] England, the son of Kate (née Ogus) and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive.^[4] His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew.^[5][6] He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare Lawrence. His surname was legally changed to Moody in 1930.^[4]

Education

Moody was educated at Southgate County School, which at the time was a state grammar school, and based in Palmers Green in the London Borough of Enfield, in North London, followed by the London School of Economics in Central London, where he trained to become a sociologist.

Life and career

Despite training to be a sociologist, Moody began appearing in theatrical shows and later decided to become a professional actor.

Moody has worked in a variety of genres, but is perhaps best known for his starring role as Fagin in Lionel Bart's stage and film musical Oliver! based on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. He created the role in the original West End production, and reprised it in 1984 on Broadway and in the 1968 film, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

He appeared in several children's television series, including The Animals of Farthing Wood, Noah's Island, Telebugs, Into the Labyrinth, and the Discworld series. Among his better known roles is that of Prime Minister Rupert Mountjoy in the comedy The Mouse on the Moon (1963), alongside Margaret Rutherford. He played French entertainer and mime artist The Great Orlando in the 1963 Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday. He acted again with former Oliver! co-star Jack Wild in Flight of the Doves.

In 1969, Moody was offered, but declined, the lead role in Doctor Who, following the departure of Patrick Troughton from the part. He later told many people (including Doctor Who companion Elisabeth Sladen) that declining the role was a decision he subsequently regretted. He played Edwin Caldecott, an old nemesis of Jim Branning in EastEnders. He played Ippolit Vorobyaninov alongside Frank Langella (as Ostap Bender) in Mel Brooks' version of The Twelve Chairs (1970). In 2003, he starred in the black comedy Paradise Grove alongside Rula Lenska. In 2005, he acted in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Other Lives, playing the Duke of Wellington.

In 2004, the British ITV1 nostalgia series After They Were Famous hosted a documentary of the surviving cast of the motion picture Oliver!. Several of the film's musical numbers were reenacted. Moody, then 80 but still spry, and Jack Wild (seriously ill with oral cancer at the time) recreated their dance from the closing credits of the film.

Moody appeared in an episode of BBC1's Casualty (aired on 30 January, 2010) as a Scottish patient who had served with the Black Watch during the Second World War.

On 30 June 2010, Moody appeared on stage at the end of a performance of Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! and made a humorous speech about the show's 50th anniversary. He then reprised the "Pick a Pocket or Two" number with the cast.

At the start of 2010, Moody began taking part in Memorabilia,^{[clarification needed]} where he greeted fans along with signing autographs.

Family

Moody married a Pilates teacher, Therese Blackbourn, in 1985. They have six children. Moody's son, Daniel, was the visual effects assistant on the 2010 film The Wolfman.

Partial filmography

• Follow a Star (1959)
• Five Golden Hours (1961)
• A Pair of Briefs (1962)
• Summer Holiday (1963)
• The Mouse on the Moon (1963)
• Ladies Who Do (1963)
• Murder Most Foul (1964)
• The Sandwich Man (1966)
• Oliver! (1968)
• The Twelve Chairs (1970)
• Flight of the Doves (1971)
• Legend of the Werewolf (1975)
• The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)
• Dominique (1978)
• Unidentified Flying Oddball, aka The Spaceman and King Arthur (1979)
• Othello (as Iago) (1981)
• Wrong Is Right (1982)
• Where Is Parsifal? (1983)
• Asterix and the Big Fight (1989) (voice)
• A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995)
• Revelation (2001)
• Paradise Grove (2003)

References

External links

• Ron Moody at the Internet Movie Database
• Ron Moody at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Ron Moody at the Internet Broadway Database