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Scott's world -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

By VERNON SCOTT, UPI Hollywood Reporter
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HOLLYWOOD (UPI) -- The powers that be in the great beyond must have sent forth the request "Send in the clowns!" when it was determined the hereafter could use some laughs.

Thus Milton Berle and Dudley Moore were summoned on the same day to bring merriment to another plane in need of humor, wit and a barrel of belly laughs.

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Both men departed this world on Wednesday, March 27, a continent apart but their destination the same.

Berle died of colon cancer at age 93 in his Los Angeles home attended by his wife and family members.

Moore, 66, died of complications from supranuclear palsy in Plainfield, N.J., after a long battle against the debilitating disease.

The comedians were as unlike as two mortals could well be.

Uncle Miltie was the classic vaudeville, baggy-pants Jewish comedian who would do anything for a laugh and inevitably succeeded every time he opened his mouth. Little Dudley was the archetypal stiff-upper-lip Briton with cerebral wit, halting delivery and self-abnegating demeanor.

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The cigar-chomping Berle was brash, noisy and self-confidant. The 5-foot-2, club-footed Moore was shy, diffident and hesitant.

Their great similarity was a towering ability to amuse and delight people of every age and culture with extravagant gifts from the muse of entertainment.

Offstage and away from cameras they were endearing in their eagerness to please, their need for praise and reassurance always apparent.

They suffered jointly from the professional comedian's insecurities and guilt for not being funny all the time -- as if that were an unforgivable shortcoming.

Each man was a professional who failed to make a distinction between his on-camera aura and his real life persona. Friends were never sure where one began and the other left off.

All the same, they evoked peals of laughter seemingly without effort, employing different but equally effective techniques, delighting millions of people worldwide with jokes, facetious buffoonery and investing characters with hysterical performances.

Berle was a son of New York poverty, Dudley a product of British middle class gentry.

Berle was a graduate of the school of hard knocks. Moore was a gifted classical pianist who attended Oxford.

But they shared a commonality of talent, bringing joy to uncounted millions through their ability to make people laugh and love them simultaneously for their frailties and courage to provoke one and all to laughter.

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In some respects Moore could thank Berle for opening new vistas of comic possibilities while Milton could tip his hat to Dudley for the subtleties of comedic acting.

So far as is known, Berle and Moore never appeared together in films, TV or on stage. But rest assured they knew and respected each other's work.

They realized how difficult it can be to elicit laughter from the body politic, especially in hard or tragic times. But both succeeded magnificently when called upon.

Berle, a veteran of vaudeville and radio, reached the height of his long career in television when that medium was in its swaddling years.

His "Texaco Star Theater," which debuted in 1948, was the single biggest hit in TV history, selling millions of television sets when his only opposition was wrestling matches.

Berle set the standard for comedy hours, which have flourished on the tube ever since.

Brashly corny and often silly -- especially wearing women's dresses and bonnets -- Berle was the talk of the country in homes and around office water coolers for many years.

He excelled brilliantly in hilarious sketches, dialect jokes and outrageous black-outs. Major movie stars strove to make appearances on his shows. He became more than Mr. Television. Berle was Mr. Show Business.

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Moore achieved instant movie stardom in his performance with Bo Derek in "10" (1979) playing a lecherous leprechaun, and quickly rose to box-office heights as the lovable millionaire sot with Lisa Minnelli in "Arthur" (1981).

Although they traveled different routes to stardom and eventually watched their popularity wane, as happens to all comedians, Berle and Moore set high standards for comedy that have not since been matched in television nor in movies.

They brought an indefinable substance to the fine and noble art of making people laugh in a world that more often than not is neither light-hearted nor humorous.

Out of character and away from the blazing lights of Broadway and Hollywood, Berle and Moore held aloft their own luminous qualities, spreading happiness and delight wherever they traveled.

One may be certain both of these genuine stars will be welcome wherever the unknown road may take them.

The angels are sure to set aside their harps to laugh and applaud when the tall, dapper, cigar-smoking Berle and the diminutive, limping and rumpled Moore reach their destination.

You may be sure there will be a thunderous roar of welcome and, of course, heartfelt curtain calls for both.

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