Michell, Keith Joseph
Actor, singer
b. Dec. 1, 1927 (Adelaide, Australia)
This handsome Australian tenor made his London stage debut in And So To Bed (1951). He won stardom as the pimp Nestor in Irma La Douce (1958), a role he repeated on Broadway two years later. Michell starred opposite soprano June Bronhill in the long-running West End hit Robert and Elizabeth (1964), and played the title role in the first London production of Man of La Mancha (1968). In the years that followed, he had even greater success in dramatic roles -- he will long be remembered for his complex performance as England's most married monarch in television's The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Longtime director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, his later musical roles included Oscar Jaffe in the London On the 20th Century (1980), Georges in the American and Australian companies of La Cage Aux Folles (mid 1980s), and George in various productions of Aspects of Love.

Middleton, Ray
Actor, singer
b. Feb. 8, 1907 (Chicago) - d. Apr. 10, 1984 (Panorama City, CA)
This tall, classically trained baritone had a non-singing role in Roberta (1933), played narrator Washington Irving in Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and appeared in George White's Scandals (1939) before serving in the US Air Force during World War II. He played Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun (1946), introducing Irving Berlin's "My Defenses Are Down" and sharing "Anything You Can Do" and "They Say It's Wonderful" with Ethel Merman. Middleton sang "Here I'll Stay" with co-star Nanette Fabray in Love Life (1948), and took over as Emile DeBecque in the long-running Broadway company of South Pacific (1950). He made his last Broadway appearance as the original Innkeeper in Man of La Mancha (1965), introducing "Knight of the Woeful Countenance." His film roles include the blustering Colonel McKean in 1776 (1972).

Millar reigned as London's premier musical ingénue in The Quaker Girl (1910), Gipsy Love (1912), The Dancing Mistress (1912), Marriage Market (1913), and a major revival of The Country Girl (1913). World War I brought a change in popular tastes, and after Millar appeared in two flop revues and two equally dismal musical comedies, she left the stage at age 29.

Millocker, Carl
Composer
b. Apr. 29, 1842 (Vienna) - d. Dec. 31, 1899 (Baden bei Wein)
Longtime conductor at the Theater an der Wein, Millocker composed some of the most popular Viennese operettas of the late 19th Century. With more than eighty scores to his credit, his biggest hits included Der Bettelstudent (1882), Gasparone (1884) and Der Arme Jonathan (1890). Although his works are now rarely performed outside of German-speaking countries, Millocker was considered a peer to such contemporaries as Johann Strauss II, Karl Zeller and Von Suppe.

Mills, Florence
Actress, singer, dancer
b. Jan. 25, 1895 (Washington DC) - d. Nov. 1, 1927 (NYC)
Small in size but ablaze with personality, the elf-like Mills became one of the first African-American stage stars to enjoy acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. She first won attention as a cast replacement in the hit Broadway revue Shuffle Along (1921), which she followed with Plantation Revue (1922) -- and its re-titled London version, Dover Street to Dixie (1923). Back in New York, she was featured in the Greenwich Follies (1923), and scored a major success in the revue From Dixie to Broadway (1924) -- where she turned "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking For a Bluebird" into the hit of the show. 

Mills starred in a special edition of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds (1926) which had a brief tryout run in Harlem before winning raves in London. Her admirers included the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor), who saw the show thirteen times. After a triumphant European tour, Mills returned to New York, where a botched appendectomy led to her death at age 32.

Monckton, Lionel
(b. John Lionel Alexander Monckton)
Composer
b. Dec. 18, 1861 (London) - d. Feb. 15, 1924 (London)
Monckton abandoned a career in law to compose for lighthearted West End musicals, becoming the most successful British stage composer of the early 20th Century. With contributions to The Shop Girl (1894) and The Geisha (1896), he began a long association with producer George Edwardes and his popular Gaiety Theatre musicals. Monckton's hits included A Runaway Girl (1898), The Messenger Boy (1900), The Toreador (1901), A Country Girl (1902), The Orchid (1903), The Spring Chicken (1905), The Girls of Gottenberg (1907), Our Miss Gibbs (1909), The Quaker Girl (1910) and The Dancing Mistress (1912). Many of these shows later enjoyed successful runs in the US.

Monckton's lyricists included Adrian Ross and Basil Hood, and he was the first husband of Gertie Millar, who starred in eleven of his shows. When the end of World War I brought new jazz age rhythms into vogue, Monckton refused to change his style and retired. He died just a few years later at age 63.

Moody, Ron
Actor, singer
b. Jan. 8, 1924 (London)
This gifted comic actor got his start in London revues, making his book musical debut as the Governor of Buenos Aires in the first West End production of Candide (1959). He originated the role of Fagin in Lionel Bart's Oliver! (1960), introducing "A Pocket or Two" and "Reviewing the Situation." He repeated this triumph in the 1968 screen version, as well as stage revivals on both sides of the Atlantic. His future musical projects did not achieve the same level of international success. After co-authoring and starring in the short-lived Joey, Joey (1966) and appearing in the ill-fated Saturnalia (1971), Moody focused his energies on film and television. He took the title role in the Leslie Bricusse musical Sherlock Holmes (1989), which failed despite a promising score.

Napier, John
Set Designer
b. Mar. 1, 1944 (London)
Noted for his work in opera and dramatic productions (Nicholas Nickelby - Tony 1981), Napier's long-lasting collaboration with director Trevor Nunn included several of the most popular British "mega-musicals" of the late 20th Century. Napier first brought his electronics-heavy approach to musical theatre design in the London (1981) and Broadway (1982) productions of Cats, and dazzled Londoners by filling the Apollo Victoria Theatre with mechanized ramps for Starlight Express (1984).

Napier combined hydraulics and a turntable for the London production of Les Miserables (1985), and saw his high-tech barricades recreated in productions all over the world -- winning a second Tony for the 1987 Broadway version. He received his third Tony that same evening for creating the train-like costumes in Starlight Express (1987) -- but his churlish speech complaining that Starlight's set did not win too guaranteed Napier would not see a fourth Tony anytime soon. So it was no surprise when his massive sets for Sunset Boulevard (1993) triumphed in London but were denied a Tony when they reached Broadway two years later.

Oates, Alice
(b. Alice Merritt)
Actress, singer
b. Sept. 22, 1849 (Nashville) - d. Feb. 24, 1881 (Cincinnati)
This attractive, ambitious soprano barnstormed America in the 1870s and 80s in a colorful repertory of bastardized French opera-bouffes -- including La Petit Duc, La Fille de Madame Angot and La Grande Duchesse. Acting as both leading lady and company manager, the youthful Oates won extensive press coverage with her colorful antics on and off stage. She was dismissed by big city critics as a "provincial" favorite, a classification she accepted with pride. While preparing for an international tour, she died suddenly at age 32.

Olcott, Chauncey
(b. Chancellor John Olcott)
Actor, singer
b. July 21, 1860 (Buffalo, NY) - d. Mar. 18, 1932 (Monte Carlo)
America's most famous "Irish tenor" got his start in variety and minstrel shows. A series of comic opera performances in New York and London showed promise, but stardom came when Olcott starred in a touring musical called The Irish Artist (1894). For the next three decades, he was one of the most beloved stars on the touring circuits, where he annually appeared in musicals with sentimental Irish themes. Although his shows are forgotten, some of the songs he introduced are still heard today, including "Macushla," "Mother Macree," and "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."