Keith Michell

Keith Michell
Born	Keith Joseph Michell 1 December 1928 (1928-12-01) (age 80) Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Spouse(s)	Jeanette Sterke (m. 18 Oct. 1957) 2 children

Keith Michell (born 1 December 1928) is an Australian actor.

Early life

He was born in Adelaide and brought up in Warnertown, near Port Pirie in South Australia's Mid North region. The theatre in Port Pirie is named after him.

Career

Michell taught art until he made his theatre debut in Adelaide in 1947 and he first appeared in London in 1951. He has starred in several musicals, including the first London production of Man of La Mancha, in which he played the dual role of Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation, Don Quixote. (An album set was also made of this performance.) In 1964 he starred as Robert Browning in the musical 'Robert And Elizabeth', opposite Australian soprano June Bronhill.

Michell has acted with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company, as well as appearing extensively in cinema and television, notably as the King in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and as Heathcliff in BBC Television's 1962 adaptation of Wuthering Heights.^[1] He was the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre (1974-1977).

On American television, Michell has made appearances on the mystery series Murder, She Wrote (starring Angela Lansbury), playing Dennis Stanton, a former jewel thief turned insurance claims investigator who always solved his cases with unusual methods and sent a copy of the story to his friend Jessica Fletcher afterwards.

As well as acting, Michell pursues other interests: he wrote the musical "Pete McGynty and the Dreamtime", an Australian rendering of Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt", the performance of which used Michell's own paintings as backdrops; he is a painter and has illustrated a limited edition run of Shakespeare's sonnets for which he also did the calligraphy; and he has written and illustrated a number of macrobiotic cookbooks. Michell himself is a proponent of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy and follows a macrobiotic diet.

Michell was also the illustrator of "Captain Beaky", a collection of Jeremy Lloyd's poems. "Captain Beaky" enjoyed phenomenal success in Britain in the 1980s, among both children and adults. The song "Captain Beaky" peaked at No. 5 on the UK charts in 1980.

Personal life

He is married to the actress Jeanette Sterke and they have a son, Paul, and a daughter, Helena, who appeared in the films Prick Up Your Ears, based on the biography of British playwright, Joe Orton, and Maurice, from the E. M. Forster novel of the same name.

Filmography

• The Prince and the Pauper (1996) (TV) - King Henry VIII
• Murder, She Wrote (1988-93, TV Series) - Dennis Stanton
• The Deceivers (1988) - Colonel Wilson
• Captain James Cook (1987, TV Series) - Captain James Cook
• My Brother Tom (1986, TV Series) - Edward Quayle
• The Miracle (1985) (TV) -
• Memorial Day (1983) (TV) - Marsh
• Ruddigore (1982) (TV) - Robin Oakapple/Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd
• The Gondoliers (1982) (TV) - Don Alhambra del Bolero
• The Pirates of Penzance (1982) (TV) - Major General Stanley
• Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981) (voice) - Grendel's servant
• The Day Christ Died (1980) (TV) - Pontius Pilate
• The Tenth Month (1979) (TV) - Matthew Poole
• Julius Caesar (1979) (TV) - Marcus Antonius
• The Story of David (1976) (TV) - Older David
• The Story of Jacob and Joseph (1974) (TV) - Jacob
• Moments (1974) - Peter Samuelson
• Keith Michell at Her Majesty's Show of the Week (1972) (TV) - Himself
• Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) - King Henry VIII
• The Morecambe and Wise Show (1971) (TV) - Himself/Captain Tony Snug-Fitting
• 'Wiltons' - The Handsomest Hall in Town (1970) (TV) - Music Hall Performer
• The Executioner (1970) - Adam Booth
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970, TV Series) - King Henry VIII
• Play of the Month (1968-69, TV Series) - Caliban
• House of Cards (1968) - Morillon
• Prudence and the Pill (1968) - Dr. Alan Hewitt
• Thirty-Minute Theatre (1968, TV Series) - Martin
• Hallmark Hall of Fame (1967, TV Series) - John Churchill
• Soldier in Love (1967) (TV) - John Churchill
• The Bergonzi Hand (1963) (TV) - Gabriel Cordier
• The Spread of the Eagle (1963, TV Series) - Marc Antony
• Dominatore dei sette mari, Il (1962) - Malcolm Marsh
• Wuthering Heights (1962) (TV) - Heathcliff
• All Night Long (1962) - Cass
• The Hellfire Club (1961) - Jason
• Dow Hour of Great Mysteries (1960, TV Series) - Baron Von Ragastein
• The Gypsy and the Gentleman (1958) - Sir Paul Deverill
• True as a Turtle (1957) - Harry Bell
• Dangerous Exile (1957) - Colonel St. Gerard

References

External links

• Keith Michell at the Internet Movie Database
• Portrait Sculpture of Keith Michell