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Michael Crawford

Michael Crawford, OBE (born 19 January 1942), 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 The Phantom of the Opera and Barnum, he first became a household name and famous to millions for his role as the hapless Frank Spencer on 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 appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and has also been named Showbusiness Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain.

Biography

Crawford was born Michael Patrick Dumbell-Smith in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. He was raised by his widowed mother, Doris, and her parents, Montague Pike and Edith Kathleen O'Keefe, whom Crawford always called "Monty" and "Nan". Doris's first husband, Arthur Dumbell-Smith, had been killed during the Battle of Britain, less than a year after they married. Two years after his death, Crawford was born, the result of a short-lived relationship, and given his mother's first husband's surname. During his early years, he divided his time between the army camp in Wiltshire, where he and his mother were living during the war, and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, where he also lived with his mother and grandparents. However, at the end of the war in 1945, his mother re-married a grocer named Den Ingram in 1945 and they moved to London. There Crawford attended Oakfield Preparatory School, Dulwich, where he was known as Michael Ingram.

Early career

From an early age, it was clear that he demonstrated both an aptitude for comedy and an exceptional singing voice. At the age of seven, he made one of his first (and briefer) public appearances as a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, but his membership of the choir was short lived.

He made his first stage appearance in the role of Sammy the Little Sweep in his school production of Benjamin Britten's Let's Make an Opera, which was then transferred to Brixton Town Hall in London, England. But his professional break did not come until Britten hired him to play Sammy in another production of the opera, this time at the Scala Theatre in London, which he alternated with another boy soprano, David Hemmings.

Soon afterwards, the English Opera Group hired him for the role of Japhet in another Benjamin Britten opera, Noye's Fludde, based on the story of Noah and the Great Flood. Crawford remembers that it was while working in this production that he realized he seriously wanted to become an actor.

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

He went on to perform in a wide repertoire. Among his stage work, he performed in André Birabeau's French comedy Head of the Family, Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn, Bernard Kops's Change for the Angel, Francis Swann's Out of the Frying Pan, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Twelfth Night, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, The Striplings, The Move After Checkmate, and 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, and Two Living, One Dead, and he even appeared as the 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. His film work included leading roles in two children's films, Blow Your Trumpet and Soapbox Derby, for The Childrens' Film Foundation in Britain.

Early adult career

At nineteen, 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 try to perfect an American accent. After The War Lover, Crawford briefly returned to the stage until he was offered a more prominent role in the British television series, Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, as the Mod-style, tough-talking, motorcycle-riding Byron. The character became so popular that Crawford was asked to write a column, as Byron, in which he answered 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 Lester also hired him for the roles in such films as 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 he met and fell in love with an actress-disc jockey named Gabrielle Lewis and they married in Paris in 1965. They had two daughters, Emma and Lucy.

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 Gene Kelly and was called to Hollywood to audition for him for a part in the upcoming film adaptation of the musical Hello, Dolly!.

He was cast and shared top billing with Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau. It did well at the box office, but most of his later movies were flops, although Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which he played the White Rabbit, enjoyed moderate success in the UK. During this difficult time, his marriage fell apart and divorce followed in 1975; but he and Gabrielle have remained very close friends.

After performing in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and with offers of work greatly reduced, Crawford 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.

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

His career was saved with an invitation to star in a BBC television comedy series about a childlike and eternally haphazard man who causes disaster everywhere he goes. Crawford was not the first choice for the role of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Originally, the role had been offered to actor-comedian Ronnie Barker but after he and Norman Wisdom had turned it down, Crawford took on the challenging role. Cast alongside him was 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. At first it ran only until 1975 when it was felt that it would be best to stop while still successful. Popular demand saw it 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, Crawford 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, Crawford went back to studying singing seriously with a vocal coach, Ian Adam, and spent hours perfecting his dancing capabilities with choreographer Onna White. The show was a huge hit and soon, along with the fame from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, his career was back on track.

Furthermore, in this pre-CGI age, Frank performed all his own stunts on the show yet always chose to wear his lucky black leather gloves whilst doing so.

The Phantom of the Opera and other stage productions

After the closing of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em during this time, Crawford continued to perform in plays and musicals, starring in the ill-fated Flowers for Algernon (1979) in the role of Charly Gurdon, based on the book of the same title; Cy Coleman's Barnum (1981) (one of the longest runs by a leading actor) 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).

In 1995, Crawford created the high-profile starring role in EFX, the US$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. But early into the run, Crawford 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 in 2002 and early 2003. Many fans of the show blame Crawford directly for the bombing of Dance Of The Vampires. Crawford was given creative control over the production, and made vital changes in the elements that had made the original Tanz Der Vampire such a great success. The fact that Crawford changed the nationality of Von Krolock from a German to an Italian (remembering that "Von" is a German title) so he could do a "funnier accent" is an indication of just how far removed DOTV would be from the nature of the much more successful and beloved Tanz Der Vampire.

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 three months later 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).

Crawford was ranked #17 in the 100 Greatest Britons (2002) poll sponsored by the BBC. He has also been president of the Sick Children's Trust since 1987. The Michael Crawford International Fan Association (MCIFA) makes large contributions to many charities.

Crawford has also been known to be something of a prankster, including planting fake mice around mouse-phobic Dale Kristien's dressing room, shouting in his "Phantom Voice" to lighten the mood on the set of a tedious shoot, and pretending that the van he was riding in hit someone (very nervous driver and Crawford told her she'd knocked someone with the van).

In the new Pixar animated movie WALL-E (2008) Crawford can be seen singing in the movie Hello, Dolly! as WALL-E watches his video-tape copy of this.

Awards

Awarded Olivier Award for "Best Actor in a Musical" for his performance of the title role in Barnum (1981)

Awards won by Michael Crawford for his performance in the title role in Phantom of the Opera:

Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical (1986)
Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (1988)
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical (1988)
Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Musical (1988)
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for "Distinguished Achievement in Theatre (Lead Performance)" (1990)

Awards won by Michael Crawford for his performance as Count Fosco in "The Woman in White" (2004 musical):

Outstanding Stage Performance Award from the Variety Club of Great Britain (2004)
"Best Supporting Actor in a Musical" -- Theatregoers Choice Award voted by on-line readers of WhatsonStage.com

In addition Crawford received an Olivier Award nomination in 2004 for his performance as Count Fosco in "The Woman in White."