Biographies: Robert Helpmann - Actor

Biographies

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An Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer, born in Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia as Robert Murray Helpmann. He received his education at Prince Alfred College in South Australia. After early work in Australia, he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet, and became one of the company's leading men. He formed a dancing partnership with ballerina Alicia Markova, and then the ballerina Margot Fonteyn. In the forties, he turned to theatrical acting at the Old Vic and the West End in London. Most of his roles were in Shakespeare's plays. As a director, he worked in Shakespeare's plays, operas, musicals, and pantomimes. In the eighties, he directed for the Australian Opera and worked in plays. He was nominated for an AFI Award in 1978. Among his notable works are Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Don Quixote (1973) and The Red Shoes (1948). He died of emphysema in Sydney, Australia, on September 28, 1986.

• 29 November 2023
• Shaimaa Saied