Michael Flanders
| Michael Flanders | |
|---|---|
Flanders at left with Donald Swann, 1966
|
|
| Born |
Michael Henry Flanders 1 March 1922 London, England, UK |
| Died | 14 April 1975 (aged 53) Betws-y-Coed, Wales, UK |
| Cause of death | Ruptured intracranial berry aneurysm |
| Occupation | Actor, broadcaster, writer and performer |
| Children |
Stephanie Flanders Laura Flanders |
GO TO IT!
Westminster School Revue
St David's Institute, Exeter, 26 July 1940
Produced, devised and presented by
M. H. Flanders
Musical arrangements by
Donald Swann
Further performances—
Moreland Hall, Hampstead, 28 August 1940
Rudolph Steiner Hall, London, 29 August 1940
Michael Henry Flanders OBE (1 March 1922 – 14 April 1975) was an English actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs. He is best known for his stage partnership with Donald Swann.
As a young man Flanders seemed to be heading for a successful acting career. He contracted polio in 1943 while serving in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and for the rest of his life was reliant on a wheelchair. He made a career as a prolific broadcaster on radio and later television, and together with his old schoolfriend, the composer Donald Swann, he wrote successful songs in the late 1940s and early and mid-1950s for revues in the West End of London. In 1956 they themselves performed some of these songs, along with new songs, in a two-man revue, At the Drop of a Hat. This show, and its successor, At the Drop of Another Hat, ran with occasional short breaks from 1956 to 1967 and played in theatres throughout the British Isles, the US, Australia and elsewhere.
During and after the stage partnership with Swann, Flanders pursued a many-faceted career, performing on stage, screen, radio, concert platforms and recordings. He wrote opera librettos, a children's book, a volume of poetry and the words of a cantata about Noah's Ark.
Flanders was born in Hampstead, London, the third child and only son of Percy Henry Flanders and his wife, Laura Rosa (Laurie), née O'Beirne. His father had a variety of occupations, including actor and cinema manager. His mother was a professional violinist.
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