Michael Crawford

Michael Crawford raised by a single mother (Doris Pike) and his maternal grandparents (Montague Pike and Edith O’Keefe Pike) in what Crawford described as a “close-knit [Roman] Catholic family”. His maternal grandmother was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, and lived to be 99 years old. His mother’s first husband, Arthur Dumbell Smith, who was not his biological father, was killed, aged 22, on 6 September 1940 during the Battle of Britain, less than a year after they married. Sixteen months after Smith’s death, Crawford was born, the result of a short-lived relationship, and given his mother’s surname, which was that of her first husband.During his early years, Crawford divided his time between the army camp in Wiltshire, where he and his mother lived during the war, and the Isle of Sheppey, off the coast of Kent, where his mother had grown up. He attended Saint Michael’s, Bexleyheath, a Catholic school run by nuns whom Crawford later described as not being shy in their use of corporal punishment. At the end of WWII, his mother remarried, this time to a grocer, Lionel Dennis Ingram. The couple moved to London, where Crawford attended Oakfield Preparatory School, Dulwich, where he was known as Michael Ingram. His mother’s second marriage was abusive, according to Crawford.Crawford landed a leading role on Broadway in ‘Black Comedy’, where he tumbled down a steep staircase and crashed into a solid door face first eight times a week during the run of the play. Producer Roger Edens saw him. Impressed by the young man’s agility and talent, Edens recommended him to Ernest Lehman for the role of “Cornelius Hackl” in Hello, Dolly! (1969).