Michael Crawford, 1942 – present, part one
Early Years – Broadway debut
It seemed a strange person to profile but apart from starring in one of the UK’s best loved sitcoms that is 50 years old this year this guy has had a fascinating career. What’s more there was a fare amount of video footage to look over. Because of this we’ve broken the post down into 3 parts which we’ll run through the week.
Michael Crawford, English tenor, actor and comedian, will be best remembered to readers of this site for his role as Frank Spencer in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
However Crawford has had a fascinating career spanning over 40 years, which has included many film and television performances as well as stage work on both London’s West End and on Broadway in New York City. Along the way receiving international critical acclaim and winning numerous awards
Whilst it was Some Mothers that made him a household name, his other famous role was as the Phantom in Phantom of The Opera a role which earned him both the Laurence Olivier Award and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
Quick Bio
Born Michael Patrick Smith on 19th January 1942, the young Michael was brought up by his Mother, Doris Agnes Mary Pike, and her parents, Montague Pike and his wife, Edith (née O’Keefe), in what he would later describe as a “close-knit Roman Catholic family”. His maternal grandmother was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and lived to be 99 years old.
His Mother’s first husband was Arthur Dumbell “Smudge” Smith, who was not his biological Father, was killed, aged 22, on 6th September 1940 during the Battle Of Britain less than a year after they married. Sixteen months after Smith’s death, Michael was born, the result of a short-lived relationship, and given his mother’s surname, (Smith) which was that of her first husband.
During his early years, Crawford divided his time between the army camp in Wiltshire, where he and his Mother lived during the war, and the Isle Of Sheppey in Kent.
Education
Early education came care of St Michael’s, a Catholic school in Bexleyheath run by Nuns whom he would later describe as not being shy in their use of corporal punishment. At the end of World War II the his Mother remarried, this time to a grocer, Lionel Dennis “Den” Ingram. The couple moved to London, where a young Michael attended Oakfield Preparatory School in Dulwich. Here he was known as Michael Ingram.
It was whilst still at school that he made his first stage appearance in the role of Sammy the Little Sweep in his school production of Let’s Make an Opera. The production switched to Brixton Town Hall in London.
Career beginnings
Michael Crawford’s early career was a sound grounding for his later work but a world away from the role that would make him a household name.
In 1958 he was hired by the English Opera to create the role of Jaffet in a production called Noye’s Fludde (based on the story of Noah and the Great Flood.) Crawford would later recall that it was while working in this production that he realised 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 to change his name, “to avoid confusion with a television newsman called Michael Ingram[s] who was registered with British Equity (actors union).
Now known as Michael Crawford he would go on to perform in a wide repertoire. Among his stage work, he performed in French comedy Head of The Family, Twelfth Night and many others. At the same time, he appeared in hundreds of BBC radio broadcasts and early BBC soap-operas, such as Billy Bunter of Greyfields School, Emergency – Ward 10. He also appeared as the cabin boy John Drake in the television series Sir Francis Drake a 26-part adventure series made by ITC. It would be 1958 when he would make his film debut with leading roles in two children’s films, Blow Your Own Trumpet and Soapbox Derby, for The Children’s Film Foundation in Britain.
In 1961 Michael Crawford appeared in an episode of One Step Beyond called “The Villa” in which he played a character experimenting with strobe lights.
He appears in the only surviving episode of the 1960 British crime series Police Surgeon alongside Ian Hendry. At this time he was still under 20 years old.
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This series would spawn the much better-known The Avengers.
Early Adult Career
in 1962 aged nineteen, he was approached to play an American, Junior Sailen, in the film The War Lover, which starred Steve McQueen. Next was a brief return to the stage and, after playing the lead role in the 1963 British film Two Left Feet Crawford was offered a role in the British television series, Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, playing the role of the Mod-style, tough-talking, motorbike-riding Byron. It was this character that attracted film director richard Lester to hire him for the role of Colin in The Knack..and How To Get It in 1965. The film was a huge success in the UK.
Lester also cast him in the film adaptation of the musical A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum
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and How I Won The War
which starred Roy Kinnear and John Lennon. In 1967 Crawford also starred in The Jokers a film directed by Michael Winner and also starring Oliver Reed
Making his Broadway Debut
In 1967, Michael Crawford made his Broadway début in Peter Shaffer’s farce “Black Comedy” alongside Lynn Redgrave who was also making her début. It was here he demonstrated his aptitude and daring for extreme physical comedy, such as walking into walls and falling down staircases.
Whilst working in the show, he was noticed by Gene Kelly who invited Crawford to Hollywood to audition for him for a part in the film adaptation of Hello Dolly!. He got the part and shared top billing with Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau.
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The film was a huge success, but failed to recoup it’s costs.
His later films fared less successfully, although 1972’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in which he played the White Rabbit, enjoyed moderate success in the UK.
After a good run Crawford’s career took a brief downturn.
After performing in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland offers of work were greatly reduced and with much of his salary from Hello, Dolly! lost, reportedly due to underhanded investments by his agent, Crawford began a brief period of unemployment. During this time he helped his wife stuff cushions (for their upholstery business) and took a job as an office clerk in an electric company to pass the time between. Sadly finance weren’t the only difficulty as around this time, his marriage fell apart and divorce followed in 1975.
In part 2 of Michael Crawford In Profile…
No Sex Please We’re British leads to a life changing role, another sitcom that’s largely forgotten and another famous role in the West End.