Arthur (1981 film) won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Co-written by Christopher Cross, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen, it was performed by Christopher Cross. Sir John Gielgud also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The film was nominated for two other Academy Awards. Arthur Bach is a spoiled alcoholic from New York City, who likes to be driven in his chauffeured Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith limousine through Central Park. Arthur is heir to a portion of his family's vast fortune, which he is told will be his, only if he marries the upper class Susan Johnson, the daughter
John Gielgud his own reputation. He told an interviewer, "They pay me very well for two or three days' work a month, so why not? It's nice at my age to be able to travel all over the world at other people's expense." Gielgud's most successful film performance of the decade was Steve Gordon's comedy "Arthur" (1981), which starred Dudley Moore as a self-indulgent playboy. Gielgud played Hobson, Moore's butler. He turned the part down twice before finally accepting it, nervous, after the "Caligula" débâcle, of the strong language used by the acerbic Hobson. He won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor