Michael Crawford

Michael Crawford is a singer who primarily seems to focus on stage productions of musicals. Perhaps most well known for his role in The Phantom of the Opera (as the Phantom) Michael has made an excellent name for himself in the musical world. Crawford seems to be well attuned to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, performing works from a great number of the man's plays. A CD is currently available entitled "Michael Crawford performs Andrew Lloyd Webber". Crawford was born with the name Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith, on January 19, 1942 in England. While a small man Michael Crawford produces a deep voice of haunting quality. The best place to look for or to hear him is on London recording of Phantom or just keep your eyes on PBS.

1. Michael Crawford became famous in the TV comedy Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973-1975, and 1978), playing Frank Spencer, a bumbling and ineffectual clot who did terrific slapstick routines (he did all his own hair-raising stunts) and couldn't get a job for more than a day wihout leaving large piles of wreckage and a few nervous breakdowns in his wake.

He wore a beret, his catchphrase was a limp "Ooh, Betty" to his wife (Betty was played by Michelle Dotrice), and occasionally he tried and failed to exert his authority by asserting "I'm a man!". They did however -- somehow -- have a daughter Jessica.

The first reaction of most people on hearing that someone called Michael Crawford was going to appear in a musical was probably, "Not the Michael Crawford? Not Frank Spencer? But he's not a singer, is he?".

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2. Dr Michael Crawford is a scientist at the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition in London. In his 1989 book The Driving Force: Food, Evolution and the Future he presented significant evidence in favour of the Aquatic Ape Theory, principally that the modern human brain is unlikely to have developed on a savannah diet, but could have found the long-chain fatty acids it is built from easily in the seafood of a littoral environment.