The BBC reports the death of Ron Moody, the latest old trouper to go. It quotes Moody as saying: “Oliver! was a moment in one’s life when you find where you really are”. Moody, of course, played Fagin in “Oliver!” Now (aside from the grammar), if I’d been Ron, I’d have wanted a better epitaph than that at the top of the story. Because, if the quote is accurate, I’m not sure what it says about him. And it reminded me of an old Jonathan Miller story: Miller said that when he was making The Merchant of Venice, with Laurence Olivier playing Shylock, Olivier told him, “There is one thing we must avoid at all costs: we must be careful not to offend the Hebrews.” Miller told him, “The best way to avoid offending “the Hebrews” is to make sure that Shylock doesn’t look like something out of Oliver!”
I’m with Jonathan Miller.
Bob Mouncer's blog 
Ironically, given the above anecdote, Ron Moody is quoted thus in obit: “…I never wanted to do it….I went to see the Alec Guinness film [Oltiver Twist, 1948], which I found to be so antisemitic as to be unbearable. But Bart is as Jewish as I am and we both felt an obligation to get Fagin away from a viciously racial stereotype, and instead make him what he really is – a crazy old Father Christmas gone wrong.” (from Robert)
That is ironic, isn’t it? Also Miller went on to say that when discussing how to play the scene in The Merchant of Venice when Shylock hears that Antonio’s ship has gone down, Miller had unearthed footage of Hitler doing a sort of jig on hearing the news of some triumph by the German army (occupation of France perhaps) and persuaded Olivier to reproduce it in his performance!
the draculonian Christopher Lee grabbed the headlines by selfishly dying on the same day. My epitaph is…’In this life, one thing counts’ but Christopher counted best.
Yes, indeed. I haven’t seen any mention of another role of his, Sir Somebody Baskerville, who had a near-fatal encounter with next door’s dog. Hammer, Lee and Cushing were made for each other, and we all laughed – and shivered!