STEPHEN MOORE

(11 December 1937 - 4 October 2019)

Equally well-known on stage, television and radio, British actor Stephen Moore, who has died at the age of 81, graced some films in a career that included working for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court. On stage he tackled Shakespeare, Ayckbourn, Sam Shepard, Howard Brenton, David Hare, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, O’Neill and John Osborne among other playwrights’ work. He will be remembered, however, for originating the role of Marvin, the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and stayed with the piece throughout its many manifestations on radio, TV and audio recordings. His first TV work was the voice of flute in Czech animator Jirί Trnka’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Then, after several television movies and series, he was in Lindsay Anderson’s long ‘short’, The White Bus (1967), written by Shelagh Delaney. Other films that Stephen Moore made include The Last Shot You Hear, Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far, Don Siegel’s Rough Cut, with Burt Reynolds, Where the Boys Are, with Lorna Luft, Richard Eyre’s Laughterhouse, and Christopher Morahan’s Clockwise with John Cleese from a Michael Frayn screenplay. Under Suspicion was a thriller with Liam Neeson, Brassed Off was Mark Herman’s comedy-drama about a Northern brass band, and The Boat That Rocked was a Richard Curtis comedy about pirate radio. Other notable TV appearances by Stephen Moore were in Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Three Men in a Boat, two series of Adrian Mole programmes, Middlemarch (as Mayor Vincy), Harry Enfield and Chums (as Kevin’s Dad), Jack Rosnethal’s Ready When You Are, Mr McGill, Doctor Who and Holby City. His last appearance was in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show in 2016. Stephen Moore married four times and is the father of the actress Robyn Moore, the actor Guy Moore and Hedda Moore by his first wife Barbara Mognaz; the father of the actress Charlotte Moore by his second wife Celestine Randall; and the father of Sophie George-Moore by his fourth wife Noelyn George.

MICHAEL DARVELL