Keith Michell

Keith Joseph Michell (1 December 1926 – 20 November 2015) was an Australian actor who worked primarily in the United Kingdom, and was best known for his television and film portrayals of King

Michell was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Film for his performance as Harry Bell in True as a Turtle (1957).^[1] He later won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for playing Henry VIII in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970).^[2]

Michell was born in

Michell joined the Young Vic theatre company and made his first appearance in London by 1951. An early role there was Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. His first London musical was And So to Bed, playing King Charles II. With the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in 1952–1953, he toured in Australia. Then, at Stratford-upon-Avon, he appeared in a series of Shakespeare plays: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Troilus and Cressida, and Romeo and Juliet. In 1956, on television, he played Henry Higgins in Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw and, the same year, at the Royal Court Theatre, he starred in the title role in Ronald Duncan's Don Juan and in several Old Vic Company productions as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra and Aaron in Titus Andronicus.^[3]

In 1958, he played Nestor-Le-Fripe in the musical Irma La Douce, also starring in the role with the National Theatre in Washington, DC, and on Broadway in 1960–1961. At the newly opened Chichester Festival Theatre, in 1962, he played Don John in The Chances and then Ithocles in The Broken Heart, and in British television adaptations, he starred as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1962)^[4] and, in a series of Roman plays titled The Spread of the Eagle, he played Mark Antony (1963). He later sang in a series of television specials written for him.^[3]

Also on Broadway, he played the Count in The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh (1963). In 1964 in London, he starred as Robert Browning in the musical Robert and Elizabeth, opposite Australian soprano June Bronhill.^[5] He played the dual role of Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation Don Quixote in the musical Man of La Mancha, first starring in the original London production of the musical^[6] and then on Broadway. He also starred as Abelard in the Broadway play Abelard and Heloise with Diana Rigg by Ronald Millar (1971) and as Georges in La Cage aux Folles in the 1980s.^[7]

On stage, in film and on television, he appeared several times as King

In the late 1950s Michell was under contract to the Rank Organisation who gave him roles in films such as True as a Turtle, The Gentleman and the Gypsy and Dangerous Exile.[9]

Other films included The Hellfire Club (1961), Seven Seas to Calais (1962) and The Executioner (1970).^[3] He appeared in a series of Gilbert and Sullivan TV adaptations by Brent Walker.^[10] On American television from 1988 to 1993, Michell made appearances on the mystery series Murder, She Wrote, playing Dennis Stanton, a former jewel thief turned insurance claims investigator.^[11]

He was the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre from 1974 to 1977, appearing in many of their productions, including as the Director in

He married the actress Jeanette Sterke in 1957. They had a son, Paul who was the lead singer of 80s band the Roaring Boys, and a daughter, Helena, who appeared in the films Prick Up Your Ears and Maurice.^[3]

Michell died in Hampstead, London, eleven days before his 89th birthday.^[3][11]

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