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English actor & director (1926-2012)
Brian Stow Crossley (5 October 1926 – 8 September 2012) was an English-born actor, director and drama tutor, who after starting his career in his native country, emigrated to Australia. He appeared in and directed numerous roles in theatre and on television over a career spanning more than 50 years, including directing straight theatre, musicals, opera and operetta.
He was born in Shipley in West Yorkshire , England to engineering draughtsman Harry Crossley and Minnie Stow. He attended Birmingham College of Speech and Drama and performed as part of Birmingham Repertory Theatre , he appeared in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan 's Patience and in 1950 was invited to join the chorus for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company , playing a variety of small roles. In 1952 he played in Gay's the Word on the West End , he emigrated to Australia in 1954, where he moved to Melbourne to join the Union Theatre Repertory Company . He toured Australia and New Zealand in 1956 with the J.C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company , but with the arrival of television he turned his attention to the screen.[ 1]
He appeared in a variety of television programs, including Homicide , Division 4 and Consider Your Verdict , as well as directing for serial The Box . His most successful role was on children's series Adventure Island , where he played Mrs Flower Potts from 1967 to 1972.
During this period he also directed for the stage; his first directing project was Christoph Willibald Gluck 's Orfeo ed Euridice for the Victorian State Opera ; he subsequently directed Benjamin Britten 's The Rape of Lucretia , Domenico Cimarosa 's The Secret Marriage and Franz Joseph Haydn 's L'infedeltà delusa and collaborated extensively with Dennis Olsen . He directed a wide variety of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and in 1973 was appointed a director of the National Theatre 's Opera School. He moved to the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education in Queensland around 1982.[ 1]
Crossley died in Melbourne on 8 September 2012, aged 85.[ 1]
Year
Production
Role
Type
1974–76
The Box
Director
TV series, 24 episodes
1980
The Ioslanthe
Director
TV movie
Year
Production
Role
Type
1974
The Box
Producer
TV series, 10 episodes
Year
Production
Role
Venue / Company
1948
Let the People Live
Actor
Birmingham Repertory Theatre [ 2]
1948
Peer Gynt
Actor
Birmingham Repertory Theatre [ 2]
1950–51
Patience
Mr. Bunthorne's Solicitor / Major Murgatroyd
D’Oyly Carte Opera Company , Malvern, Worcestershire [ 3]
1950–51
The Yeomen of the Guard
First Citizen
D’Oyly Carte Opera Company , Malvern, Worcestershire [ 3]
1952
Gay's the Word
West End, London
1954
Tram Stop 10!
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
Under the Sycamore Tree
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
Twelfth Night
Actor
University of Melbourne & VIC/SA regional tour
1955
The Dark is Light Enough
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
The Time of Your Life
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
You Never Can Tell
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
The Man
Actor
University of Melbourne
1955
Return Fare
Actor
University of Melbourne
1956
The Gondoliers
The Duke
VIC regional tour
1956
Arms and the Man
Actor
VIC regional tour
1956
Trial by Jury
Associate
Theatre Royal, Adelaide
1956
The Yeomen of the Guard
Actor / Singer
Theatre Royal, Adelaide
1958
Cox and Box / H.M.S. Pinafore
Actor
Theatre Royal, Adelaide
1958
Hotel Paradiso
Actor
University of Melbourne
1958
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Actor
University of Melbourne
1961; 1964
Alice in Wonderland
White Rabbit
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne , Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne
1962; 1963
Noddy in Toyland
Mr Pink-Whistle
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne , Theatre Royal, Sydney
1963
Where Do We Go From Here ?
Actor
St Martins Theatre, Melbourne
1968
A Thousand and One Stars
Actor
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne
1974
Death of a Salesman
Actor
SGIO Theatre with Queensland Theatre
1975
The Wedding of Count Potocki
South Australia
1978
The White Horse Inn
Grinkle
Canberra Theatre
1980
Jack and the Beanstalk
Actor
VIC regional tour
1980
Goldilocks
Actor
VIC regional tour
1980
Red Riding Hood
Actor
VIC regional tour
1980
Alice in Wonderland
Actor
VIC regional tour
1980
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
Actor
VIC regional tour
1980
Cinderella
Actor
Northland Shopping Centre Theatre, Melbourne & VIC regional tour
Year
Production
Role
Venue / Company
1955
You Never Can Tell
Assistant Stage Manager
University of Melbourne
1955
Design for Living
Assistant Stage Manager
University of Melbourne
1955
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Assistant Stage Manager
University of Melbourne
1955
The Man
Stage Manager
University of Melbourne
1960
Nothing Sacred
Producer
Star Theatre, Melbourne
1961
The Importance of Being Earnest
Director
University of Melbourne
1965
Alice in Wonderland
Director
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide
1968; 1969
It Happened In Tanjablanca
Director
Viaduct Theatre Club, Melbourne
1969
The Rape of Lucretia
Director
St Martins Theatre, Melbourne
1969
L'Orfeo
Director
St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with Victorian Opera
1970
Count Ory
Director
Camberwell Civic Centre with Victorian Opera
1971
The Deluded Infidel (aka L’infedeltà delusa or Deceit Outwitted )
Producer
Camberwell Civic Centre with Victorian Opera
1971
The Secret of Susannah / Help! Help! The Globollinks
Director
Princess Theatre, Melbourne
1974
The Gondoliers
Producer
Festival Theatre, Adelaide
1975; 1977; 1978
The Gondoliers
Director
Sydney Opera House , Princess Theatre, Melbourne
1975; 1978
The Mikado
Producer
Festival Theatre, Adelaide ,
1975
Albert Herring
Director
National Theatre, Melbourne
1976
Iolanthe
Director
Sydney Opera House , Festival Theatre, Adelaide
1977
The Mikado
Director
Sydney Opera House
1978; 1980
The Masters
Writer / Director
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne , Seymour Centre, Sydney , Playhouse, Adelaide , Civic Theatre, Burnie , Princess Theatre, Launceston , Theatre Royal, Hobart , Canberra Theatre
1978
The Yeomen of the Guard
Director
Festival Theatre, Adelaide , Princess Theatre, Melbourne , Regent Theatre, Sydney
1979
Cox and Box / H.M.S. Pinafore
Director
Princess Theatre, Melbourne
1979
H.M.S. Pinafore
Director
Canberra Theatre , Polly Woodside, Melbourne
1980
The Pirates of Penzance
Director
National Theatre, Melbourne , Canberra Theatre
1980
Lock Up Your Daughters
Director
National Theatre, Melbourne , Monash University
1981
The Medium
Producer
National Theatre, Melbourne
1985
The Little Sweep
Director
Melbourne Concert Hall
1987
Princess Ida or, Castle Adamant
Director
Canberra Theatre
The Secret Marriage
Director
My Fair Lady
Director
[ 4]