Lee Van Cleef

He also appeared as a villainous swindler in the Bonanza episode, The Bloodline (December 31, 1960). He starred in "Dance of the Vampires" on Broadway during late 2002 & early 2003 and is currently appearing in Lloyd Webber's new musical "The Woman in White" which opened at the Palace Theatre, London in September 2004. Van Cleef also appeared in John Carpenter's cult hit Escape from New York. At the gala, Michael was presented with a Birthday cake. He appeared with Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also performed "Music of the Night" at the Inaugural Gala for President George Bush in Washington DC on Jan 19th 1989. His first film was the classic Western High Noon, in which he played a villain. Crawford has played leading roles in films such as Hello, Dolly (1968), but more often appears on stage, having starred in West End productions such as Billy (based on the novel, Billy Liar) (1974), Barnum (1981) (one of the longest runs by a leading man) and, most notably, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (1986), for which he won an Olivier Award (Best Actor in a Musical), a Tony Award (Best Performance By An Actor In a Lead Role, Musical), a N.Y's Drama Desk Award, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theatre (Lead Performance).

Van Cleef served in the United States Navy during World War II and became an actor after a brief career as an accountant. It was one of the BBC's most successful series of all time. However, Van Cleef occasionally played heroes. Although he most often appears in musicals, he became known to millions for his role as the hapless Frank Spencer in the television sitcom, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, for which he performed most of his own stunts. His sharp features and piercing eyes made him an ideal "bad guy". Crawford began his acting career as a seven-year-old, appearing in the première of Benjamin Britten's work for children, Let's Make an Opera. Lee Van Cleef (January 9, 1925 - December 16, 1989) was a movie actor, who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures. Michael Patrick Dumble-Smith (born January 19, 1942), better known as Michael Crawford, is one of Britain's leading actors, so much so that he was voted into the Top "100 Greatest Britons" in a 2002 poll sponsored by the BBC.