Elfin, quick-witted British comic actor Dudley Moore, who was best known for his role as the lecherous composer in the 1979 film 10 and as the lovable millionaire drunk in 1981's Arthur, died Wednesday morning at his New Jersey home of pneumonia, a complication of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), according to his publicist. He was 66.

A brilliant pianist and composer, the 5' 2 1/2" entertainer had been in ill health for several years. His illness, a debilitating neurological disorder, affected both his motor and mental functions, and by the time of his death, Moore had lost the ability to speak and was almost immobile. In November 2001, he was named a Commander of the British Empire; it was the last time he was seen in public.

"He said he was waiting to die," Moore's estranged wife Nicole Rothschild told the TV show Extra in June 1998, and that "there was really nothing left for him here." Rothschild, Moore's fourth wife, had previously filed a lawsuit against her husband, charging him with assault, battery and domestic violence. She dropped the charges that year when she discovered how ill he had become.

Despite a career that included numerous awards for his performances on both stage and screen -- two Tonys (for Beyond the Fringe in 1963 and Good Evening in 1974), two Golden Globe Awards (1981's Arthur and 1985's Mickey + Maude) and a Best Actor Oscar nomination (for Arthur) - as well as notable successes as a concert pianist and jazz musician, Dudley Moore's popularity was more enduring in his homeland than in America.

"Only the British media persist in treating Moore as a superstar: the local lad who made good," said Britain's The Independent newspaper in 1994. "Like Peter Sellers before him, he is a highly gifted British export who left a creative British career behind for fleeting fame, some riches, but sadly, little fulfillment in America."