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Keith Michell, 89, actor known for playing Henry VIII
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Diner
Nov 20, 2015, 3:57:43 PM11/20/15
to
Note that this obituary is credited to Dennis Barker, the veteran Guardian obit writer who died in March.
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/nov/20/keith-michell
Keith Michell obituary
Actor and theatre director best known for his many portrayals of Henry VIII
Dennis Barker
Friday 20 November 2015 14.06 EST Last modified on Friday 20 November 2015 15.12 EST
Regally tall and strong-featured, the Australian-born actor Keith Michell, who has died aged 89, 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
* Dennis Barker died earlier this year
(c) 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/nov/20/keith-michell
Keith Michell obituary
Actor and theatre director best known for his many portrayals of Henry VIII
Dennis Barker
Friday 20 November 2015 14.06 EST Last modified on Friday 20 November 2015 15.12 EST
Regally tall and strong-featured, the Australian-born actor Keith Michell, who has died aged 89, 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
* Dennis Barker died earlier this year
(c) 2015 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
cathyc...@aol.com
Nov 20, 2015, 7:24:06 PM11/20/15
to
He was 88. Not mentioned in this obit is the role that more contemporary American audiences would know him for: his recurring role on Murder She Wrote.
Anglo Saxon
Nov 20, 2015, 8:58:12 PM11/20/15
to
cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
> He was 88. Not mentioned in this obit is the role that more contemporary
American audiences would know him for: his recurring role on Murder She Wrote.
I'll be damned. He was the international man of mystery who tried Jessica's
> He was 88. Not mentioned in this obit is the role that more contemporary
American audiences would know him for: his recurring role on Murder She Wrote.
patience and got her thrown into all manner of jails. Somehow they always
stayed friends. That was a pure corn-pone show, but fun to watch the
characters. "I don't know what it is about you, Mrs. F., but every time you
show up, I have dead bodies everywhere". - Sheriff Mort
cathyc...@aol.com
Nov 20, 2015, 9:54:22 PM11/20/15
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No that was Len Cariou as the man of mystery. Michell played the jewel thief who dictated his cases to Jessica in letters. They didn't appear on cases together.
Corn pone? Wtf does that mean?
Corn pone? Wtf does that mean?
Diner
Nov 20, 2015, 10:00:32 PM11/20/15
to
On Friday, November 20, 2015 at 7:24:06 PM UTC-5, cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
> He was 88. Not mentioned in this obit is the role that more contemporary American audiences would know him for: his recurring role on Murder She Wrote.
Crap. You're right about the age, of course - I just took that from the first sentence and didn't check further.
> He was 88. Not mentioned in this obit is the role that more contemporary American audiences would know him for: his recurring role on Murder She Wrote.
Also lacking in this obit are most of his Broadway credits. He played a couple big musical roles on Broadway: he was a replacement Don Quixote in "Man of La Mancha," and a replacement Georges (the Gene Barry role) in "La Cage aux Folles."
He also starred in a 1971 production of "Abelard and Heloise," which caused a bit of a sensation at the time, as he and his co-star Diana Rigg did one of the first nude scenes on Broadway with well-known actors. (It was the scene that inspired John Simon's notorious line "Diana Rigg is built like a brick mausoleum with insufficient flying buttresses.")
Sarah Ehrett
Nov 20, 2015, 10:19:08 PM11/20/15
to
On Fri, 20 Nov 2015 18:54:19 -0800 (PST), cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
>No that was Len Cariou as the man of mystery.
Great actor, currently on Blue Bloods with Tom Selleck.
>No that was Len Cariou as the man of mystery.
> Michell played the jewel thief who dictated his cases to Jessica in letters.
>They didn't appear on cases together.
>
>Corn pone? Wtf does that mean?
" folksy and homespun ".
Anglo Saxon
Nov 21, 2015, 12:55:13 AM11/21/15
to
cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
> No that was Len Cariou as the man of mystery. Michell played the jewel thief
who dictated his cases to Jessica in letters. They didn't appear on cases
together.
Yeah, you're right! Remember when John Astin played the murdering real estate
> No that was Len Cariou as the man of mystery. Michell played the jewel thief
who dictated his cases to Jessica in letters. They didn't appear on cases
together.
guy? That was a curve ball.
>
> Corn pone? Wtf does that mean?
the kernals are eaten, right? One of those deals where you hear it when
you're 2 years old and it's used as a local venacular, maybe. Corny being
dopey and non-threatening.
Sarah Ehrett
Nov 21, 2015, 12:58:55 AM11/21/15
to
On Sat, 21 Nov 2015 05:52:50 -0000 (UTC), Anglo Saxon
<inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
>>
>> C? Wtf does that mean?
written is not anywhere near accurate.
<inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
>>
>> C? Wtf does that mean?
>
>A bastardization of "corny", I think. The pone is the thing that's left when
>the kernals are eaten, right? One of those deals where you hear it when
>you're 2 years old and it's used as a local venacular, maybe. Corny being
>dopey and non-threatening.
Google corn pone. Or look at my response because what you've
>A bastardization of "corny", I think. The pone is the thing that's left when
>the kernals are eaten, right? One of those deals where you hear it when
>you're 2 years old and it's used as a local venacular, maybe. Corny being
>dopey and non-threatening.
written is not anywhere near accurate.
cathyc...@aol.com
Nov 21, 2015, 7:16:08 AM11/21/15
to
I can see Hee Haw or Beverly Hillbillies described as corny but I don't find anything corny about Murder She Wrote.
David Carson
Nov 21, 2015, 9:19:34 AM11/21/15
to
On Fri, 20 Nov 2015 19:00:31 -0800 (PST), Diner <bway...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> and a replacement Georges (the Gene Barry role) in "La Cage aux Folles."
"I'm sorry ... we've already got a Georges" - Elaines
wrote:
> and a replacement Georges (the Gene Barry role) in "La Cage aux Folles."
Anglo Saxon
Nov 21, 2015, 1:32:01 PM11/21/15
to
cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
> I can see Hee Haw or Beverly Hillbillies described as corny but I don't find
anything corny about Murder She Wrote.
You know, I can take your point. If words and their meanings matter, (and they
> I can see Hee Haw or Beverly Hillbillies described as corny but I don't find
anything corny about Murder She Wrote.
do to me), I concede. Even corny. LOL.
Sarah Ehrett
Nov 21, 2015, 6:43:34 PM11/21/15
to
On Sat, 21 Nov 2015 04:16:05 -0800 (PST), cathyc...@aol.com wrote:
>I can see Hee Haw or Beverly Hillbillies described as corny but I don't find anything corny about Murder She Wrote.
Murder She Wrote is IMO a light mystery which appealed to older
>I can see Hee Haw or Beverly Hillbillies described as corny but I don't find anything corny about Murder She Wrote.
viewers, and probably more specifically to older women viewers.
A very popular show in nursing homes from what I've been told.
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