The Music of The Night.
Michael Crawford, OBE was born on the 19th January 1942 in Wiltshire England. He was raised by his mother Doris and his grand parents and spent the first years of his life living between a British army camp in Wiltshire and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent during the second world war.
Early in his life Michael developed an exceptional singing voice and joined the choir at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London at the age of seven. Michael’s first stage appearance came in the role of Sammy the Little Sweep in a school production of ‘Let’s Make Opera’. He was then cast as Sammy in another production of the opera at The Scala Theatre in London. This eventually led to a full time career with Michael taking on many more stage roles alongside numerous radio, television and film appearances.
In 1973 Michael Crawford took the role of accident prone Frank Spencer in ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Em’ the hit British Sitcom in which he became a household name. The show ran successfully for five years and alongside the show he starred in many plays and musicals such as Flowers for Algernon and Barnum.
In 1986 Michael Crawford starred in the title roll in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘The Phantom of The Opera’ opening at at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London on October 9th 1986 delighting concert goers in sold out houses throughout the United States, Australia and Great Britain for over three years. Michael’s exceptional performances as the Phantom won him an Oliver Award for Best Actor in a Musical, a Tony award for Best Performance By an Actor in a Lead Role and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for Distinguished Achievement in a Lead Role in Theatre.
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ (The Complete Original London Cast Recording) album went quadruple platinum in the U.S.A and was an international hit selling over 12 million copies worldwide.
Michael Crawford’s solo recording career followed the success of The Phantom of the Opera and he went on to record ‘Songs From the Stage and Screen’, ‘Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber’ and ‘A touch of Music in the Night’ all hit albums in their own right.
In 1987 Michael Crawford was made an officer of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in recognition of his achievements on stage, in Film,Television and on Radio.
