After Dinner Speakers - Ron Moody
Ron Moody became an international star through his creation of Fagin in both the stage and film versions of Lionel Bart's Oliver! Peter Myers and Ronnie Cass offered him a part in one of their intimate reviews at the New Lindsay Theatre. From there, he went straight into the West End in Intimacy at 8.30, For Amusement Only and For Adults Only. His first musical was Leonard Bernstein's Candide... then came Oliver!
When Oliver! was filmed in 1967, Ron was nominated for an Oscar and won 5 international Best Actor awards including the Hollywood Golden Globe, the Variety Club Film Award and the Moscow Golden Bear and was made a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Other film credits include A Kid in King Arthur's Court, as Merlin, The Twelve Chairs with Mel Brooks, Summer Holiday, The Flight of the Doves, Dogpound Shuffle with David Soul, A Ghost in Monte Carlo (from a Barbara Cartland novel), Wrong is Right and Take Pity an award winning short film. British stage appearances have included ,Polonius, and the ,Grave Digger, in Hamlete; Shylock Clandestine Marriage and 'Captain Hook' five times in Peter Pan. And Richard III.
TV credits include 'Lord Baden Powell' in The Edwardians, Gunsmoke, Starsky and Hutch, Bing Crosby Christmas Show and 'Le Brun' in The Word for CBS. 1979 he made his first American TV series, Nobody's Perfect and stayed in Los Angeles to appear in a remake of Dial M for Murder and Hart to Hart. 1981 he played 'Iago' in a video production of Othello and in 1982 appeared in Tales of the Gold Monkey. Back in England he played the title role in Marino Fahero at the Young Vic, made a second Hart to Hart (filmed in London) and starred in Tales of the Unexpected for Anglia TV.
In1984 he appeared in a one man special for C4, 'Fagin' in Oliver in London and Broadway (for which he received a Tony nomination) and a major film Where is Parsifal? 1985 saw a new series for the BBC entitled Hideaway and The Caucasian Chalk Circle for Thames, Telebugs and Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury. 1986 he played the title role in The Miser directed by Peter Coe and in 1987/8 he completed a smash hit tour of America and Canada as 'Sir Joseph Porter' in HMS Pinafore.
Ron starred in a The Streets of Dublin at the Tivoli Theatre, Dublin and in the Bertie musical at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham. He played 'Galileo' 'Newton' and 'Aristotle' in the BBC production Discovering Physics; Newton's World and guest starred in the Mike and Angelo series. Guested a role in Last of the Summer Wine. Tour of The Canterville Ghost.
Ron's most recent West End roles have been as 'Sherlock Holmes' in Leslie Bricusse's Sherlock Holmes - The Musical and as 'Captain Hook'/'Mr Darling' in Peter Pan. His one-man show Move Along Sideways has been performed to great acclaim at the Devon Festival at Peterborough and the Theatre Royal, Brighton.
He played Mr Darling/Captain Hook in the BBC Radio 4 production of Peter Pan, released as a double album in the BBC Radio Collection Series. He played 'Alfred Doolittle' in the BBC Radio2 'live' recording of My Fair Lady and sang the role of 'Pangloss' for Radio 3's production of Bernstein's Candide in their 'Towards the Millenium' series. Recently he appeared as 'Buddy' in Follies a production later broadcast on BBC Radio 2.
Ron has recorded various characters in the award winning children's animation series Telebugs and The Animals of Farthing Wood and the title role and others in a new animation series Noah's Island. Ron is the author of four published books - The Devil you Don't; Very Very Slightly Imperfect; The Amazon Box and Off the Cuff - a book on after dinner speeches.
