Keith Michell obituary
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Regally tall and strong-featured, the Australian-born actor Keith Michell, who has died aged 88, made his reputation in the 1960s and 70s in classical roles, and probably played the part of King Henry VIII more than any other performer. But he also made a significant contribution to British theatre when he followed Laurence Olivier and John Clements to become artistic director of Chichester Festival Theatre. The appointment in 1974 was Michell’s first of this kind, and came as a surprise to many, since contenders for control of the huge apron stage, and the chance to experiment in a kindlier atmosphere than that of the West End in London, had included Jonathan Miller, Peter Dews and Robin Phillips, all of whom had directing experience, including plays at Chichester.
Michell had been recruited by Olivier to play the lead, Don
John, in John Fletcher’s The Chances, in the first production at the new
Chichester theatre, in 1962, and also for John Ford’s The Broken Heart, in
which he played Ithocles. After that he was always hoping for a return: “I
loved working there on the open stage. I was there at its birth.”
What he called the “Vistavision width” stage at Chichester worried him slightly. He thought it like New York stages which, being wide and long, encouraged the actors to “play out front”, frightened that if they did not address the audience from the edge of the stage they would lose its attention. One of his first acts as artistic director was to invite the four designers at Chichester into his office to talk about the stage. He had always held an interest in art and design and before moving to Britain had been an art teacher. He remained an accomplished painter.
A native of Adelaide, Keith was the son of Joseph, a cabinet-maker, and Alice (nee Aslat), and studied at Port Pirie high school, Adelaide Teachers’ College and Adelaide University. While teaching art, he made his first stage appearance, in Bill Daily’s comedy Lover’s Leap at the Playbox theatre in Adelaide in 1947.
After doing work for the ABC radio network in the city, in
1949 he left for Britain and the Old Vic Theatre School. He was a member of the
Young Vic Theatre Company (1950-51), his roles including Bassanio in The
Merchant of Venice.
His first full London appearance was at the New Theatre in 1951, as Charles II in the musical of And So To Bed. He then joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company for a tour of Australia (1952-53), and on his return to Stratford-upon-Avon played in The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, and Romeo and Juliet. In 1956 he both played the title role in Ronald Duncan’s Don Juan at the Royal Court theatre and joined the Old Vic Company for more Shakespeare – Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Aaron in Titus Andronicus.
A change of gear came in 1958 when he worked in the stage musical Irma La Douce, which took him to the National theatre, Washington, and to Broadway. Early on in his television career he had played Henry Higgins in Shaw’s Pygmalion (1956), Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1962) and Mark Antony in a series of Roman plays called The Spread of the Eagle (1963). Later on came shows built around him as a personality – now a British celebrity – singing songs from the shows.
Chichester in 1974 was the first artistic directorship he had sought: “I knew I should want to do it if I was serious about the theatre. I should want to have overall direction of a company or festival at some stage.” The season opened in May and included many productions in which he appeared: as the Director in Pirandello’s Tonight We Improvise, as Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannus, and in Turgenev’s A Month in the Country and Vanbrugh’s The Confederacy.
His film appearances included various forms of historical derring-do in Dangerous Exile (1958), The Hell Fire Club (1961) and Seven Seas to Calais (1962), while The Executioner (1970) was a spy thriller directed by Sam Wanamaker. For BBC television, The Six Wives of Henry VIII devoted an episode to each of the monarch’s six consorts, while Henry VIII and his Six Wives (1972) adapted the same material into a single film, directed by Waris Hussein.
In 1996, he played Henry VIII again, in a television film, The Prince and the Pauper. At 67, he was relieved to discover that the costumes for the rotund king weighed only a fraction of the 20 stone of those he had needed 20 years previously.
For Jeremy Lloyd’s creation Captain Beaky and His Band, Michell illustrated the books and took part in performances once a recording of the songs had taken off in 1980. He was present to see a one-off revival at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011.
In 1956 he married the actress Jeanette Sterke. She survives him, along with their daughter, Helena, son, Paul, and grandchildren, Millie, Matilde and Joe Luca.
Keith Michell, actor
and director, born 1 December 1926; died 20 November 2015.
Actor
Nature (1982)
Nature
8.9
TV Series
George Adamson (voice)
2011
1 episode
Love/Loss (2010)
Love/Loss
5.5
Joe
2010
Sophia Myles and Philip Sarson in The Prince and the Pauper
(1996)
The Prince and the Pauper
7.0
TV Mini Series
King Henry VIII
1996
2 episodes
Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote (1984)
Murder, She Wrote
7.2
TV Series
Dennis Stanton
1988–1993
9 episodes
Let's Face the Music (1989)
Let's Face the Music
TV Series
1989
1 episode
The Deceivers (1988)
The Deceivers
6.0
Colonel Wilson
1988
Captain James Cook (1987)
Captain James Cook
8.2
TV Mini Series
Cook
1987–1988
4 episodes
My Brother Tom (1986)
My Brother Tom
7.4
TV Mini Series
Edward Quayle
1986
2 episodes
The Miracle
7.5
TV Movie
1985
Memorial Day (1983)
Memorial Day
6.9
TV Movie
Marsh
1983
Ruddigore (1983)
Ruddigore
6.3
TV Movie
Robin Oakapple
Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd
1983
The Pirates of Penzance (1982)
The Pirates of Penzance
6.6
TV Movie
Maj. Gen. Stanley
1982
The Gondoliers (1982)
The Gondoliers
8.3
TV Movie
Don Alhambra del Bolero
1982
Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981)
Grendel Grendel Grendel
6.8
The Shaper (voice)
1981
Chris Sarandon in The Day Christ Died (1980)
The Day Christ Died
5.9
TV Movie
Pontius Pilate
1980
The Tenth Month (1979)
The Tenth Month
7.6
TV Movie
Matthew Poole
1979
The BBC Television Shakespeare (1978)
The BBC Television Shakespeare
8.1
TV Series
Marc Antony
1979
1 episode
Timothy Bottoms in The Story of David (1976)
The Story of David
6.3
TV Movie
Older David
1976
Moments (1974)
Moments
6.8
Peter Samuelson
1974
Ian Hendry and Geraldine McEwan in Late Night Theatre (1972)
Late Night Theatre
TV Series
Robert Browning
1974
1 episode
The Story of Jacob and Joseph (1974)
The Story of Jacob and Joseph
6.5
TV Movie
Jacob
1974
Charlotte Rampling, Jane Asher, Jenny Bos, Frances Cuka,
Lynne Frederick, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, and Keith Michell in Henry VIII and His
Six Wives (1972)
Henry VIII and His Six Wives
6.8
King Henry VIII
1972
Elizabeth R (1971)
Elizabeth R
8.7
TV Mini Series
Henry VIII (uncredited)
1971
1 episode
'Wiltons' - The Handsomest Hall in Town
7.5
TV Special
George Leybourne
1970
The Executioner (1970)
The Executioner
6.0
Adam Booth
1970
The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970)
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
8.4
TV Mini Series
Henry VIII
1970
6 episodes
BBC Play of the Month (1965)
BBC Play of the Month
6.9
TV Series
Sir Robert Chiltern
Caliban
1968–1969
2 episodes
House of Cards (1968)
House of Cards
6.0
Morillon
1968
Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Judy Geeson, and Joyce Redman in
Prudence and the Pill (1968)
Prudence and the Pill
5.7
Dr. Alan Huart
1968
Thirty-Minute Theatre (1965)
Thirty-Minute Theatre
7.5
TV Series
Geoffrey
1968
1 episode
Donald Pleasence and Betsy Blair in Love Story (1963)
Love Story
7.2
TV Series
Billy Hughes
1967
1 episode
ITV Play of the Week (1955)
ITV Play of the Week
6.8
TV Series
Mike Granville
Clarry
Prince Hector ...
1959–1967
4 episodes
Soldier in Love (1967)
Soldier in Love
7.8
TV Movie
John Churchill
1967
Theatre 625 (1964)
Theatre 625
7.5
TV Series
Kain
1967
1 episode
Robert and Elizabeth
TV Movie
Robert Browning
1965
The First 400 Years (1964)
The First 400 Years
TV Mini Series
Actor
1964
Earl Cameron, Lee Grant, and Fred Sadoff in The Respectful
Prostitute (1964)
Festival
6.9
TV Series
Frederic
Hugo
1964
1 episode
The Spread of the Eagle (1963)
The Spread of the Eagle
6.5
TV Mini Series
Mark Antony
1963
6 episodes
Bob Dylan, David Warner, Ursula Howells, Reg Lye, and
Maureen Pryor in The Madhouse on Castle Street (1963)
BBC Sunday-Night Play
8.7
TV Series
Gabriel Cordiner
Captain Ronald Dancy, D.S.O.
1962–1963
2 episodes
Seven Seas to Calais (1962)
Seven Seas to Calais
5.6
Malcolm Marsh
1962
Claire Bloom and Keith Michell in Wuthering Heights (1962)
Wuthering Heights
7.7
TV Movie
Heathcliff
1962
All Night Long (1962)
All Night Long
7.1
Cass Michaels
1962
The Hellfire Club (1961)
The Hellfire Club
5.2
Jason Caldwell
1961
Drama Into Opera: Oedipus Rex
TV Movie
Oedipus (in play "Oedipus Rex")
1961
Dow Hour of Great Mysteries (1960)
Dow Hour of Great Mysteries
7.9
TV Series
Baron Von Ragastein
Sir Edward Dominey
1960
1 episode
Armchair Theatre (1956)
Armchair Theatre
7.6
TV Series
Paul de Lussac
1960
1 episode
The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958)
The Gypsy and the Gentleman
5.5
Sir Paul Deverill
1958
Dangerous Exile (1957)
Dangerous Exile
5.6
Colonel St. Gerard
1957
John Gregson, Elvi Hale, Keith Michell, Cecil Parker, and
June Thorburn in True as a Turtle (1957)
True as a Turtle
5.6
Harry Bell
1957
BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950)
BBC Sunday-Night Theatre
7.7
TV Series
Crown Prince Rudolf
Prof. Henry Higgins
1956
2 episodes
Act of Violence
TV Movie
The Man
1956
The Merry Wives of Windsor
8.5
TV Movie
Master Ford
1955
The Black Arrow
TV Series
Ellis Duckworth
1951
2 episodes
Soundtrack
Ruddigore (1983)
Ruddigore
6.3
TV Movie
performer: "My Eyes Are Fully Open"
1983
Top of the Pops (1964)
Top of the Pops
6.9
TV Series
performer: "Captain Beaky"
performer: "Captain Beaky and His Band"
1980
2 episodes
The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)
The Morecambe & Wise Show
8.1
TV Series
lyrics: "Let's Walk by the Sea" (Adieu mon Amour),
"I'll Give You The Earth" (Tous les Bateaux, tous les Oiseaux)
performer: "Let's Walk by the Sea" (Adieu mon
Amour), "I'll Give You The Earth" (Tous les Bateaux, tous les
Oiseaux)
lyrics: "I'll Give You The Earth" (Tous les
Bateaux, tous les Oiseaux) (uncredited)
1971
2 episodes
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