Moore was orphaned and placed in a county hospital in Portland, Oregon. He attended the Cornish School and the University of Washington in Seattle. When Moore was 13, he played piano at speakeasies and small venues in Portland. Later, he supported Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Short, Marshal Royal, Irving Ashby, Julie Wilson, Gene Sedric, Les Hite, and Helen Gallagher. He arranged big-band music for the Tommy Dorsey and Harry James orchestras. In 1946, he played the role of a band leader in a short B movie, Stars on Parade. About this time, his relationship with Dorothy Dandridge helped bring her success in a nightclub singing career. Moore served as vocal coach for other performers in Hollywood, including Marilyn Monroe. Phil Moore worked at MGM and Paramount studios as an arranger. He worked on scores for over 30 films, although rarely received a screen credit; it has been speculated that this was due to his race. These included Ziegfeld Girl, Dumbo, Three Cheers forthe Boys, Panama Hattie, Presenting Lily Mars, Cabin in the Sky, the 1944 production of Kismet, and This Gun for Hire. During the late 1940s, Moore toured with his group, the Phil Moore Four: Milt Hinton, Marty Wilson, Johnny Letman, and Jimmy Lyons. He recorded for RCA Victor , Musicraft , and Black & White Records during this time. He was a movie industry vocal and stagecraft grooming coach in the early careers of many, most notably Dorothy Dandridge and Marilyn Monroe. From the late 1950s he gained, and maintained until his death, a wide commercial reputation in the grooming and coaching of aspiring black and white singers, starting a school in New York named "For Singers Only." In 1953, he recorded two bebop Christmas songs for RCA Victor — "Blink Before Christmas" and "Chinchy Old Scrooge". Created in the heyday of the "beat" era, these songs were thick with 1950s hipster slang, in the style of jazz-based pre-rap songs. This recording has become a rare collector's item. Moore died on May 13, 1987 in Los Angeles, California, aged 69.
Discography
As leader
Dance and Dream with Phil Moore at the Piano, Volume 1 – 78rpm 4-disc album set.
