A musical journey from bikkie ads to West End

If his birthplace had been in Australia, I might be talking to Michael Tim Tam. Fortunately for Michael Patrick Smith, his stage name was discovered at home in England.

The advertisement read Crawford's Biscuits Are Best, and from there Michael Crawford's acting and singing career was born - as randomly assorted as a deluxe box of Arnott's.

Best known for playing the Phantom Of The Opera, Crawford's rise to musical theatre's pinnacle started decades earlier. Born, as the Second World War raged, to an Irish family in the English town of Salisbury, he grew up singing in church choirs but never took his talents seriously. It wasn't until watching West Side Story that he turned to musicals.

"The original American cast came over to London and, funnily enough, it was at Her Majesty's Theatre where we did Phantom," Crawford remembers.

"It was unbelievable, so gritty and tough and romantic that I thought this is wonderful and wished I could sing.

"I started having music lessons at the age of 27 and it changed my life."

By then, Crawford was an established film actor appearing alongside Steve McQueen in The War Lover and under director Richard Lester in his adaptation of the musical, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, which also starred Buster Keaton and Jack Gilford.

If these weren't stars enough, Crawford's next role saw him acting with John Lennon in the anti-war film How I Won The War. Soon the pair were shacked up together in London with their respective wives. Now aged 70 and holder of an OBE, Crawford still pinches himself at living with a Beatle.

"You knew at the time it was awesome," he smiles.

"The other guys, Ringo and Paul, would come round and we'd be playing table tennis while John was writing Strawberry Fields.

"It was mind-blowing."

Soon, Crawford would be blowing minds of his own. Making his Broadway debut in Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy, he proved his aptitude for physical comedy by falling down staircases and walking into walls as if covered in bubble wrap.

Noticed by Gene Kelly, he was called to Hollywood to audition for a film adaptation of the musical Hello, Dolly! and cast alongside Barbra Streisand. Crawford believes he got the part as an "attractive idiot" because Kelly's wife thought he was attractive and Kelly thought he was an idiot.

The recipe was taken to further extremes in the British TV comedy series, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, as the hapless but loveable Frank Spencer. Famed for doing his own stunts and coining the catchphrase "ooh Betty", Crawford never had more fun.

"I was dragged along on the back of a bus on a pair of roller skates and ... in between the back wheels and the front wheels of a truck," Crawford says of his most memorable scene.

"It's every boy's dream to do stuff like that and not get arrested."

Film roles in Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and in the Disney turkey Condorman proved less successful.

It was a surprise to everyone when Crawford was cast as the Phantom Of The Opera, even to Andrew Lloyd-Webber, who chanced upon Crawford's voice only because he shared a vocal coach with wife Sarah Brightman. Crawford's singing lessons had earned his biggest break.

"I was up there strangling a piece of music called Care Selve and cats are jumping out windows because it takes years to master," Crawford laughs.

"I said goodbye to my teacher and Andrew comes up and asks 'who was that singing?' and he says 'oh, I'm so sorry Andrew I didn't mean to upset you, it's Michael Crawford but I think he's going to get better'.

"Andrew said 'I think we may have found our Phantom'."

Twenty five years later and Crawford has just stepped off the West End in his latest role as the Wizard Of Oz to promote a new album of his music - proof that life can be a box of chocolate biscuits.AAP