Ron Moody

Ron Moody, born Ronald Moodnick on 8 January 1924 in Tottenham, Middlesex, was an English actor, composer, singer, and writer. His surname was legally changed to the more anglicised Moody in 1930. He was the son of Kate (née Ogus) and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive whose family origins were Russian and Lithuanian Jewish. Moody was educated at Southgate County School in Palmers Green, Middlesex, and subsequently attended the London School of Economics, where he trained as an economist. During World War II, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served as a radar technician. Despite his economic training, he ultimately pursued a career in performance.

Moody is most closely identified with the role of Fagin in Lionel Bart's musical Oliver!, based on Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. He originated the part in the West End production in 1960 and reprised it in the 1968 film adaptation, for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, the Best Actor award at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. He returned to the role in the 1984 Broadway revival, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. His Broadway appearances spanned from 1973 to 1987 and included the productions Oliver! and H.M.S. Pinafore. In 1983, Moody reprised Fagin once more for the Channel 4 television programme The Other Side of London, and in 1985 he performed the role at the Royal Variety Performance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, before Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. On 30 June 2010, he appeared on stage at the close of Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! to mark the show's 50th anniversary, delivering a humorous speech and joining the cast in performing "Pick a Pocket or Two."

Beyond Oliver!, Moody built a substantial film career. He played Prime Minister Rupert Mountjoy in the 1963 comedy The Mouse on the Moon alongside Margaret Rutherford, with whom he appeared again the following year in Murder Most Foul, one of Rutherford's Miss Marple films. Also in 1963, he portrayed the French mime artist The Great Orlando in the Cliff Richard film Summer Holiday. In 1970, he played Ippolit Vorobyaninov opposite Frank Langella in Mel Brooks's The Twelve Chairs, and in 1971 he appeared in Flight of the Doves alongside his Oliver! co-star Jack Wild. In 1969, Moody was offered the lead role in Doctor Who following Patrick Troughton's departure but declined, a decision he later said he regretted. He appeared in a 1966 episode of The Avengers and made guest appearances in The Bill in 2004, alongside Mollie Sugden, and in BBC1's Casualty in 2010.

Moody also had a notable presence in British television, including voice work as Badger and Toad in the animated adaptation of Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood, as well as roles in Noah's Island, Telebugs, and Into the Labyrinth. In 1995 he appeared in Last of the Summer Wine as Lieutenant Willoughby, and in 2003 he starred in the black comedy Paradise Grove alongside Rula Lenska and played Edwin Caldecott in the BBC soap EastEnders. In 2005, he appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Other Lives as the Duke of Wellington. He also made multiple appearances on the BBC variety programme The Good Old Days. In 2004, he participated in the ITV1 documentary After They Were Famous, which revisited the surviving cast of the film Oliver!, and recreated a dance sequence from the film with Jack Wild.

Moody published a novel, The Devil You Don't, through Robson Books in London in 1980. He married Pilates teacher Therese Blackbourn in 1985, and the couple had six children. A supporter of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Moody died of natural causes in a London hospital on 11 June 2015 at the age of 91.