Ron Moody

Ron Moody was born on Jan 08, 1924 in UK. Ron Moody's big-screen debut came with Follow a Star directed by Robert Asher in 1959, strarring Violinist. Ron Moody is known for The Animals of Farthing Wood directed by Philippe Leclerc, Ron Moody stars as Toad and Stacey Gregg as Adder. Ron Moody has got 3 awards and 3 nominations so far. The most recent award Ron Moody achieved is Sant Jordi Awards. The upcoming new movie Ron Moody plays is Moussaka & Chips which will be released on Nov 13, 2005.

Equipped with a crooked, leering smirk and devilish gleam in his eye, the homely, yet beautifully expressive mug of actor Ron Moody will be most assuredly remembered for one signature role, despite the fact that the talented comedian had much, much more to offer. Carol Channing may have had her Dolly Levi and Yul Brynner his King of Siam, but Moody would become the most delightfully mischievous, engagingly musical villain of all time.The son of a plasterer born in London in 1924, Ron never gave much of a look at pursuing the acting field until age 29. Prior to that he had entertained thoughts of becoming an economist or sociologist (trained at the London School of Economics). But, changing his destiny on the way, he became a top stand-up and improv revue artist in England (from 1952), making an inauspicious film bow in 1957 in an unbilled bit. It was the British musical stage that offered him his first taste of stardom with the London company of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" in 1959. Although it was not a great success, however, it did lead to the role of a lifetime the following year as Fagin, the loveable, rapscallious pickpocket in the musical version of "Oliver Twist" simply entitled Oliver!.The heavily balding Moody later bandied about in other roguish roles too in such TV series as Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir (1961) and in the comedies La souris sur la lune (1963) and Lady détective entre en scène (1964), both starring Margaret Rutherford. But in 1968, Ron was given the opportunity to transfer his Dickensian stage thief to film. Oliver! (1968) allowed him to steal a well-deserved Golden Globe trophy and Oscar nomination in the process, not to mention Hollywood interest. Although he never again matched the success of Oliver! (1968), Moody's portrayal of Uriah Heep in a TV version of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1970) became another a great success. Other offbeat cinematic roles, both dramatic and sharply comic, included such films as Le mystère des douze chaises (1970), Flight of the Doves (1971), La légende du loup-garou (1975), Dogpound Shuffle (1979), Un cosmonaute chez le roi Arthur (1979) (aka: Unidentified Flying Oddball, as Merlin), Meurtres en direct (1982), Where Is Parsi? (1984), Emily's Ghost (1992), Le kid et le roi (1995) (as Merlin), The 3 Kings (2000), Revelation (2001), Paradise Grove (2003) and Lost Dogs (2005). Despite his fine work elsewhere, the role of Fagin would be Moody's long-lasting claim to fame. He reprised the part at a 1985 in a Royal Variety Performance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, before Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Throughout his TV career, Moody's presence and/or voice graced several children's series including the adaptations of Into the Labyrinth (1981) and The Telebugs (1986), and he was occasionally on TV here in the U.S., including 80s episodes of "Hart to Hart," "Highway to Heaven" and "Murder, She Wrote."The endearing Ron Moody died at age 91 in London.