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Michael Crawford OBE (born 19 January 1942) is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City. He is best-known for originating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera, as well as playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the popular 1970s British sitcom, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which made him a household name. Michael Crawford was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England as Michael Patrick Smith. He was raised by his... MORE

Michael Crawford OBE (born 19 January 1942) is an English actor and singer. He has garnered great critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his career, which covers radio, television, film, and stagework on both London's West End and on Broadway in New York City. He is best-known for originating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera, as well as playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the popular 1970s British sitcom, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which made him a household name. Michael Crawford was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England as Michael Patrick Smith. He was raised by his mother, Doris Agnes Mary Pike, and her parents, Montague and Edith Kathleen (née O'Keefe) Pike, whom Crawford described as a "close-knit Roman Catholic family". His maternal grandmother was born in Ireland, and lived to be 99 years old. His mother's first husband, who was not his biological father, Arthur Dumbell Smith, was killed during the Battle of Britain, less than a year after they married. Sixteen months after Smith's death (on 6 September 1940), Crawford was born, the result of a short-lived relationship and given the surname of his mother's first husband. During his early years, he divided LESS