HOLLYWOOD Q&A

Q: Is it true they’re making a movie about André the Giant? Who could play him?

A: You’re on to something there. No one could play André except André himself, and so that’s who they got.

Sadly, that’s a bit misleading. The legendary professional wrestler, who stood at between six-foot-10 and seven-foot-four, depending on whom you ask, died in 1993. But the film about his life will be a documentary, so no actor is needed.

It’s being made by HBO and is due out this spring. The film plans to lean hard on his status as “a real human but, at the same time, a mythological figure” (as per the trailer).

His genetic disorder, which caused his pituitary gland to emit too much growth hormone, made him an actual giant (as a professional wrestler, he was billed as weighing 520 pounds). However, the film promises to focus more on his outsized life than his outsized, well, size.

Q: Why was Dudley Moore famous? He seemed to come out of nowhere with “Arthur.”

A: There are multiple answers to that question, which can be broken down as why he was famous in general, and why he was famous here.

As with most British comedy stars, he started on the London stage, but he really came to prominence there as onehalf of a comedy duo along with Peter Cook. It started with their BBC comedy series “Not Only … But Also,” which led to a number of big-screen movies together, most notably 1966’s “The Wrong Box” and 1967’s “Bedazzled.” A couple of popular comedy albums followed.

In the mid-’70s, Moore left his home, and his stage partner, behind to try his hand in the U.S. He was basically starting from scratch over here, with little to no name recognition, but soon got it, thanks to a scene-stealing turn in the 1978 comedy “Foul Play” (and stealing scenes from stars Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase is no easy feat).

A bit of luck intervened next. George Segal was all set to play the composer undergoing a midlife crisis in the 1979 comedy “10,” but he dropped out at the last minute, and so director Blake Edwards gave it to Moore — his first lead role in the U.S. It was a smash hit but would be outdone by his Oscar-nominated turn in the title role of 1981’s “Arthur.”

By then, as you say, Moore was well and truly famous, in the U.S. and in his native Britain.