b. Keith Joseph Michell, 1 December 1926, Adelaide, South Australia. A distinguished, versatile actor and singer, who, in addition to his work in the classical and musical theatre, is also a talented painter. Michell gave up his job as an art teacher after successfully auditioning for Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh when they toured Australia in 1948. In the following year he moved to England, trained at the Old Vic Theatre School, and spent several years performing the works of the Bard with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company at Stratford-on-Avon. Director-choreographer Wendy Toye subsequently gave him the role of Charles II in the 1951 Vivian Ellis musical And So To Bed, after which Michell continued to work in the classical theatre, returning to the musical stage only infrequently. In 1958 he did so for the smash hit English version of Irma La Douce, in which he played the poor law student Nestor-le-Fripe, a role he reprised on Broadway in 1960. Four years later, Toye tempted him back again to co-star with June Bronhill in the critically acclaimed Robert And Elizabeth. Since then - apart from a Christmas entertainment - his only appearances in West End musicals have been as Don Quixote in Man Of La Mancha (1968, London Critics Award for Best Actor), and in the role of the has-been Broadway producer Oscar Jaffee in On The Twentieth Century (1980). He replaced Richard Kiley, the original New York Don in Man Of La Mancha, in December 1969 during the show’s 2, 328-performance Broadway run. As for On The Twentieth Century, despite the presence of Michell and Julia McKenzie, it folded after only a few months. Throughout the 80s and 90s Michell continued to appear occasionally in musicals such as La Cage Aux Folles and Aspects Of Love - but only abroad, in countries such as Australia, America and Canada. The aforementioned Christmas entertainment was Captain Beaky’s Musical Christmas, which opened at London’s Apollo Theatre in December 1981, starring Michell, Eleanor Bron, Twiggy, and Jeremy Lloyd (Lloyd had written the original children’s poems on which the show was based, for which Michell provided the illustrations). Michell’s recording of ‘Captain Beaky’/‘Wilfred The Weasel’ made the UK Top 5 (1980), and he had modest success with the Beaky-associated ‘The Trial Of Hissing Sid’ (1980), as well as the earlier ‘I’ll Give You The Earth (Tous Les Bateaux, Tous Les Oiseaux)’ (1971). Captain Beaky also crossed over into television, a medium in which Michell excelled. In the early 70s he won BAFTA and Emmy Awards for the mini-series The Six Wives Of Henry VIII, and his extensive work for the small screen has included Pygmalion (1956), Tiger At The Gates (1960), Wuthering Heights (1962), The Spread Of The Eagle (1963), Julius Caesar (1979-81), The Day Christ Died (1980), The Miracle (1985), My Brother Tom (series, 1986), Captain James Cook (series, 1987), Murder, She Wrote (series, 1990-91), and his own variety and concert specials. In 1996, he portrayed Henry VIII for the fifth time in his career in a BBC production of Mark Twain’s classic tale of The Prince And The Pauper. In the same year he was reunited with his Irma La Douce co-star Elizabeth Seal at the 90th birthday celebrations of composer David Heneker. They sang the show’s big romantic ballad, ‘Our Language Of Love’. Michell served as artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre 1972-76, and among his other awards have been those from the Society of Film and Television, Sun Television, the Royal Academy of Television Arts, the Evening News, and the Grand Order of Water Rats (Show Business Personality Of The Year).