![]() ![]() His 1967 Broadway debut in Black Comedy brought Crawford to the attention of Gene Kelly, who was casting the film version of Hello, Dolly. MICHAEL CRAWFORD PHANTOM OF THE OPERA MOVIE SERIESHe appeared in such films as The Knack and John Lennon ’s black comedy How I Won the War, as well as the popular British television series Some Mothers Do ’ave ’em. In 1962 Crawford made his West End stage debut in a production of Neil Simon ’s Come Blow Your Horn, but in the following years he made his mark primarily in films and television. ![]() He was just a twelve-year-old choir boy when he won a role with a touring company in a performance of Benjamin Britten ’s Let ’s Make an Opera, and by age fifteen he had changed his surname to Crawford and dropped out of school altogether to perform radio plays for the BBC. The boy nonetheless had a happy home life that sustained him until he was swept away with a passion for singing and performing. His father was an RAF pilot who was killed in World War II before Michael was born, and his mother, remarried to a grocery-store owner, died when Crawford was twenty-one. ”Ī recluse as a child, Crawford grew up as Michael Dumbell-Smith in difficult circumstances in the areas around London and Kent. ![]() I ’ve done it now for a year and three-quarters and I ’m not a bit tired of it. “I don ’t want to leave it yet, ” the actor told Kilian. To the contrary, he felt he was just warming to the part. And after more than 600 performances in the exhausting role and a triumphant Broadway opening that brought promises of sold-out performances far into the future, Crawford couldn ’t even begin to think about winding down his career as the Phantom. In the words of the Chicago Tribune ’s Michael Kilian, Crawford “seems as married to his part as was Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight or Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady ” or, one might add, as Yul Brenner in The King and I or Zero Mostel as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. But audiences and critics alike seem to agree that Crawford is tailor-made for the role, as though he were born and trained to someday play the Phantom. Though still enjoying a steady string of sold-out performances, The Phantom of the Opera is already one of the most popular musicals in stage history and would surely have done quite well even without Crawford. MICHAEL CRAWFORD PHANTOM OF THE OPERA MOVIE FULLFor years an accomplished British actor in films, television, and stage musicals, Michael Crawford blossomed into full theater legend in the late 1980s with his impassioned performance as the Phantom in composer Andrew Lloyd Webber ’s production of The Phantom of the Opera. ![]()
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