As a child, Dudley harboured a desire to become an actor, but after leaving school, he began his working life as a doffer in a local mill—but this job lasted only two days.
He appeared in a small part as a lorry driver in the film The Ragman's Daughter (1972) and on television in The Siege of Golden Hill (1975), Against The Crowd, Have Bird Will Travel, Here I Stand, Shabby Tiger, Strangers and Crown Court.
Dudley spent time in physiotherapy but wanted to continue to act in Coronation Street, so a storyline of Bert being injured falling off a ladder at work and suffering a mini-stroke was devised.
Coincidentally, Dudley's co-star Lynne Perrie, who played his screen wife, was also briefly admitted to the same hospital after experiencing chest pains the day before he died.
[1] Co-star Eileen Derbyshire, who played Emily Bishop in the series, stated she would remember Dudley as "full of vitality, fun and laughter, despite his personal problems.