Michael Crawford

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Michael Crawford
Birth name	Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith
Born	January 19, 1942 (age 65) Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Notable roles	Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera
Tony Awards
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, 1988, Phantom of the Opera

Michael Crawford (right) as Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

Michael Crawford, OBE (born Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith, 19 January 1942 in Salisbury, Wiltshire), is an English actor and singer. He has won critical acclaim and numerous awards during his career, which includes radio, television and stage (including appearing on stage in the West End in London, and on Broadway in New York).

Although he most often appears on stage, in musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and Barnum, he first became a household name and famous to millions for his role as the hapless Frank Spencer in the British television sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973-78), for which he performed most of his own stunts. The series became one of the BBC's most successful programmes of all time.

Crawford has been awarded the OBE, and has also been named Showbusiness Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain.

[edit] Biography

Michael Crawford was, at first, raised by his widowed mother, Doris, and her mother, Edith Kathleen O'Keefe, whom Michael always called "Nan". Doris' husband, Arthur Dumbell-Smith, had been killed during the Battle of Britain, less than a year after they married. Afterwards, Michael was the result of a short-lived relationship. He spent his early years between Wiltshire and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent with his mother and grandparents Monty and Edith, until his mother re-married a grocer named Den Ingram in 1945 and they moved to London.

From an early age, it was clear that he demonstrated both an aptitude for comedy and an exceptional singing voice, and at the age of seven made one of his first (and brief) public appearances as a choirboy at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, but he soon left that vocation.

His first stage debut was in a school production of Benjamin Britten's Let's Make an Opera playing the role of Sammy the Little Sweep (who was the leading character in the opera), which was staged by his school at Brixton Town Hall in London, England. But his professional break did not come until Benjamin Britten hired him to play Sammy in a production of Let's Make an Opera at the Scala Theatre in London, which he alternated with another boy soprano, David Hemmings.

It was in between his performances of Let's Make an Opera and Noye's Fludde, that he was told he had to change his name (as another performer in England used the same surname). While he was riding home on a bus after an audition, he noticed a truck with the slogan "Crawford's Biscuits Are Best". It was then that Michael decided to change his name to "Michael Crawford".

Soon afterward, the English Opera Group hired him for the role of Japeth in Benjamin Britten's opera Noye's Fludde, based on the story of Noah and the Great Flood. Crawford remembers that it was during that production that he realized he sincerely wanted to become an actor.

His stage career began performing in such plays as; André Birabeau's French comedy Head of the Family, Change for the Angel, Out of the Frying Pan, Come Blow Your Horn, William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Twelfth Night and other famous plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest, The Striplings, and The Move After Checkmate, among others.

At the same time, he also appeared in over 400 radio broadcasts on the BBC and early BBC soap-operas - such as Billy Bunter, Emergency Ward 10, Probation Officer, Two Living, One Dead, and even appearing as cabin boy, John Drake, in the TV series Sir Francis Drake, a twenty-six part adventure series made by ITC, starring Terrence Morgan and Jean Kent.

After appearing in two British children's films,Blow Your Trumpet and Soapbox Derby, he was approached to play an American, Junior Sailen, in the film The War Lover opposite Steve McQueen in 1962. To prepare for the role, he would spend hours listening to Woody Woodbury, a famous American comedian of the time, to help perfect his "American" accent.

After The War Lover, Michael returned to the stage for a brief time until he was offered a role in the British television series, Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life. Michael was hired to play the role of the Mod-style, tough-talking, motorcycle-riding Byron. During his time in the series, his character became so popular that Michael was asked to write a column, in the guise of his character 'Byron', in which to answer any questions regarding the character.

It was this character that attracted British director, Richard Lester, to hire him for the roles of Colin in The Knack... And How to Get It opposite Rita Tushingham and Ray Brooks in 1965. The film was a huge success in the UK and very soon afterwards, Richard hired him also for the roles in such films as - the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Buster Keaton, and Phil Silvers, The Jokers starring Oliver Reed, and How I Won the War with Roy Kinnear and John Lennon. In between this time, he had met and fell in love with a fellow actress-disc jockey named Gabrielle Lewis and they married in Paris in 1965. Soon afterward, his daughter, Emma, was born and later on in 1968, another daughter, Lucy, was born.

In 1967, he made his Broadway debut in Black Comedy/White Lies with Lynn Redgrave (making her debut as well) in which he began to demonstrate his aptitude and daring for extreme physical comedy, such as walking into and through walls in the dark. While working in the show, he was noticed by the famed director Gene Kelly and was called to Hollywood to audition for him for a part in the upcoming film adaption of the musical Hello, Dolly!. He was cast and shared top billing with Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau. However, the film was a flop at the box-office and subsequently, his later movies proved, also, to be either mediocre or complete failures at the box office, although one of the films Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which he played the White Rabbit, enjoyed a moderate success in the UK. Sadly, during this time, his marriage to Gabrielle fell apart (which he regretted) and they divorced in 1975. Although their relationship was very rocky in the beginning, they have since reconciled and are now very close friends.

After performing in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and with offers of work greatly reduced, Michael faced a brief period of unemployment, in which he helped his ex-wife stuff cushions (for her shop) and took up a job as an office clerk in an electric company to pass the time between.

His career was saved when an invitation to star in a BBC television comedy series about a child-like but eternally haphazard man who always seemed to cause disaster everywhere he went. The series was called Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and the role Michael was offered to play was the title role. However, Michael was not the first choice for the role of Frank Spencer. Originally, the role had been offered to British actor-comedian, Ronnie Barker, but after he and another fellow British-actor Norman Wisdom had turned it down, Michael was offered and took on the challenging role. Cast alongside him was British actress, Michele Dotrice, in the role of Frank's long-suffering wife Betty, and the series premiered in 1973.

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em soon became one of the BBC's most popular TV series and ran, at first, until 1975 when it was felt that rather than continuing to run the show until it failed in the ratings, it would be best to close while it was still a success. But because of its popularity, it was revived for a short period from 1977 to 1978, and when it finally closed in 1978, it remained one of the top-10 British TV series of all time.

At the same time he was playing in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Michael was approached to star in the musical Billy (based on the novel, Billy Liar) in (1974) at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. Having not sung professionally in some time, since Hello, Dolly!, Michael went back to studying singing seriously with vocal coach, Ian Adam, and spent hours perfecting his dancing capabilities with choreographer Onna White.

After the closing of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em during this time, Michael continued to perform in plays and musicals, starring in the ill-fated Flowers for Algernon in the role of Charly Gurdon, based on the book with the same title and the famous Hollywood film Charly starring Cliff Robertson; Cy Coleman's Barnum (1981) (one of the longest runs by a leading man) and in the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (1986), for which he won an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical), a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor in a Lead Role, Musical), an N.Y's Drama Desk Award, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theatre (Lead Performance).

During the run of Phantom in Los Angeles, he was asked to perform "The Music of the Night" at the Inaugural Gala for President George Bush in Washington, D.C., on 19 January 1989. At the gala, Crawford was presented with a birthday cake (it was his own 47th birthday).

After the run of The Phantom of the Opera in Los Angeles ended, Michael left acting for a while to concentrate more on his singing - by starting up a concert tour called The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, in which he performed around the United States and Europe with a full orchestra, selected special guest singers to perform with him, and an entire choir.

In 1995, Crawford created the high-profile starring role in EFX, the $70 million production which officially opened MGM's 1700-seat Grand Theatre in Las Vegas. The Atlantic Theater label released the companion album to EFX, which was hailed as among the most spectacular and ambitious shows ever produced on the American Stage. But early into the run, Michael suffered an accident during a performance (which involved him sliding from a wire hanger from the back of the theatre all the way to the stage and then jumping down 12 feet to the stage itself) and left the show to recover from his injury, which resulted in an early-hip replacement.

He also had a short comeback to Broadway as the Count von Krolock in the short-lived commercial and financial flop musical Dance of the Vampires during late 2002 and early 2003. Later, he went on to originate the role of Count Fosco in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White which opened at the Palace Theatre, London, in September 2004. However, he was forced to leave the show in December 2004 due to ill health.

Crawford was invited to attend the Gala Performance of the stage version of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway at the Majestic Theater to celebrate the show becoming the longest running musical in Broadway history (supplanting Cats).

He will also participate in a special, as of yet unknown, presentation to celebrate. After that, he will continue to do concerts in Australia and New Zealand.

On March 17, 2007, Crawford performed at Harrah's casino on Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada. He performed several songs from Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals, two numbers from Hello, Dolly!, and songs from his 1998 recording On Eagle's Wings.

Crawford was ranked #17 in the 100 Greatest Britons (2002) poll sponsored by the BBC. The Michael Crawford International Fan Association ([1]) makes large contributions to many charities.

[edit] Awards

Awards won by Michael Crawford in 1988 for his performance in the title role in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.

• Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical
• Olivier Award (1986) for Best Actor in a Musical

[edit] Trivia

• After further training in preparation for the second run of ‘Barnum’ Michael was awarded a British Amateur Gymnastics Association badge and certificate as a qualified coach.

• Voted: “Funniest Man of the Year” by the U.K. T.V. Times readers.

• As a young boy Michael sold eggs from a stall on Brixton Market in London.

• His daughter Lucy sings with him on the track "First Man You Remember" on one of his albums.

• Has been president of the Sick Children's Trust since 1987

• Once saved a crewman as he fell from the rafters above the stage after the curtain call of a Phantom show. Michael saw him falling, darted from Downstage Left to Upper Right, ran beneath and caught him.

• Once treated a little girl named Vanessa, who was suffering from the final stages of leukemia, to a very rare, private performance of "Barnum" (which he had been doing at the time) as a special treat for her, even having the theater remove some of the seats to make way for her nurses, hospital bed, and family to come and watch and Michael and the entire cast performed the show just for her. Vanessa, tragically, later died of the disease and even today, he still fondly remembers her.

[edit] Selected filmography

• Trans-Siberian Orchestra - The Ghosts of Christmas Eve (2001) — Himself
• Once Upon a Forest (1993) (voice) — Cornelius
• Barnum (1986) — P.T. Barnum
• Condorman (1981) — Woody Wilkins
• Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1972) — White Rabbit
• Hello-Goodbye (1970) - Harry England
• The Games (1970) — Harry Hayes
• Hello Dolly! (1969) — Cornelius Hackl
• How I Won the War (1967) — Goodbody
• The Jokers (1967) - Michael Tremayne
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) — Hero
• The Knack...and How to Get It (1965) - Colin
• Two Left Feet (1963) - Alan Crabbe
• The War Lover (1962) — Sgt. Junior Sailen
• Two Living, One Dead (1961) - Nils Lindwall
• Soapbox Derby (1958) - Peter Toms
• Blow Your Own Trumpet (1958) - Jim Fenn

[edit] Discography

[edit] Solo Albums

• Songs from the Stage and Screen (1987)
• Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber (1991)
• With Love/The Phantom Unmasked (1992)
• A Touch of Music in the Night (1993)
• Favorite Love Songs (1994)
• On Eagle's Wings (1998)
• In Concert (1998)
• A Christmas Album (1999)
• The Disney Album (2001)
• The Early Years - MCIFA Members Only Exclusive (2001)
• The Best of Michael Crawford - Australian Release (2002)
• The Very Best of Michael Crawford (2005)

[edit] Cast Albums

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
• Hello Dolly! (1969)
• Billy (1974)
• Flowers for Algernon (1980)
• Barnum (1981)
• Phantom of the Opera (1986)
• Highlights from Phantom of the Opera (1986)
• Once Upon a Forest (1993)
• EFX (1995)
• Woman In White (2004 London Cast) (2004)

[edit] External links

• Michael Crawford at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Crawford - BBC Guide to Comedy
• Michael Crawford at the Internet Broadway Database
• Michael Crawford International Fan Association
• An Interview with Michael Crawford