Michael Crawford
Michael Crawford is a British actor and singer who is probably best known for his roles in the hit comedy TV series ‘Some mothers do ‘Ave ‘Em’ and his timeless performance as the Phantom in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical ‘The Phantom of the Opera’.
Originally born Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith on 19th January 1942 he spent much of his early life growing up in Salisbury, Wiltshire where he was raised by his mother and eventually his grandparents in Kent. He showed an interest in music and the arts from a very early age and began to pursue this taking part in a one off choir performance at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. He later went on to make his first stage appearance in a school production of Benjamin Britten’s Let’s Make an Opera as ‘Sammy the little sweep’ and was soon asked to play this character in a professional production of the play at the Scala Theatre in London. This is where Michael’s career really began to take off, and he was told that he should consider changing his name if he wanted to take things further in the business. Another actor was using Michaels real name, so after allegedly drawing inspiration from a ‘Crawford’s Biscuits’ truck he officially began to work under the name we all associate him with: Michael Crawford.
Michael went on to star in a number of plays with ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The importance of being Earnest’ being just a couple of the more popular ones.
In between these plays he also managed to find time to take part in several radio broadcasts and some early soap opera’s for the BBC such as ‘Sir Francis Drake’, ‘Two Living, One Dead’ and ‘Emergency Ward 10’.
In 1962 his blossoming film career also lead him to star alongside actor Steve McQueen in the movie ‘The war lover’ as well as a number of children’s films.
However he was soon drawn back to his love of the theatre by an offer to star in his first Broadway hit ‘Black comedy/White lies’ alongside fellow Broadway newcomer Lynn Redgrave. After a while film roles and theatre production offers slowly began to dry up and it was not until 1973 when one of his biggest career breaks of all time would present itself. Michael Crawford took the part of ‘Frank Spencer’ in a new BBC comedy series titled ‘Some Mother’s do Ave Em’ and it soon became one of the most popular TV series of all time, with fans instantly warming to Crawford’s portrayal of the clumsy and haphazard Frank Spencer.
The show came to an end in 1978 but this certainly didn’t mean the end of the line for Michael, as he was later offered the part of ‘The Phantom’ in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical production ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ alongside Sarah Brightman. The show became a huge cult phenomenon and has become one of Michael Crawford’s best known achievements to date and earned him several prestigious awards including an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical), and a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor in a Lead Role, Musical).
His most recent theatre role has been that of ‘Count Fosco’ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical ‘The woman in white’ in 2004 although due to ill health he was forced to end his run earlier than hoped.
He is considered as a hugely charitable man who has donated vast amounts of money to good causes over the years, and can still be seen performing in various different concerts around the world.
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