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KIERON MOORE, who died on Sunday aged 82, was an Irish actor whose career began with promise, after he played Count Vronsky in the 1948 film version of Anna Karenina, but it was never fulfilled.
This remake of Tolstoy's novel of tragic adultery failed to match the two versions with Greta Garbo. Although it was beautifully made, Vivien Leigh, who played the heroine, was already developing mental problems, and Moore's wooden performance signalled that he did not exude the powerful personality demanded by the big screen of its stars. When he later read the book he was appalled by the general miscasting of all involved, except for Ralph Richardson.
Nevertheless, he was invited to Hollywood, where he played a dashing corporal alongside Burt Lancaster in Ten Tall Men and Uriah the Hittite in David and Bathsheba.
But after this he returned to England, where he contentedly remained for a busy, if more modest, career over the next 20 years.
Among his other films were The Green Scarf (1953), in which his portrayal of a deaf, dumb and blind murder suspect earned praise from the disabled, and The Blue Peter (1955), about a confused war hero who teaches at an adventure training school.
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