Stuart Wagstaff
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Stuart Wagstaff AM |
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|---|---|
| Born |
13 February 1925 Great Durnford, Wiltshire, England |
| Died | 10 March 2015 (aged 90) Greenwich, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Cause of death | Pulmonary fibrosis |
| Nationality | British, Australian |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1950s – 1990s |
Stuart Wagstaff AM (13 February 1925 – 10 March 2015) was an English-born Australian entertainer who was active in all genres of the industry including television, theatre, music and stage management.
Wagstaff was born in Great Durnford, Wiltshire, England, and grew up on a farm with his parents and two older sisters. His father was very strict and emotionally abusive and he received little affection from his mother. His mother, however, frequently took him and his sisters to see plays and pantomime, generating an early interest in the theatre. At the age of 11 he was sexually abused by a farmhand.
In September 1940, at the insistence of his father, Wagstaff joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice aircraft mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm. He served at naval air stations and on aircraft carriers until the end of the war, but considered himself to be a poor mechanic. He frequently volunteered for ships' concert parties to further his interest in acting. After the war Wagstaff joined the Windsor Repertory as an assistant stage manager, occasionally taking small roles in plays. He then joined the Whitley Repertory in which he took part in up to 48 plays and four weeks of pantomime each year as well as a few West End, film and television appearances.
Wagstaff first came to Australia in 1958 to appear in the J. C. Williamson production Not in the Book. In 1959, Williamson put him into the original My Fair Lady production, with which he was associated for the next four and a half years, the last two and half playing Professor Henry Higgins, through all the Australian and New Zealand capital cities. Following this he took over the male lead in the stage musical The Sound of Music.
Wagstaff's early Australia television appearances consisted of commercials, and a role in the 1960 Crawford Productions play Seagulls Over Sorrento. Other dramatic appearances included three episodes of the drama series Whiplash (1960), the ABC play Concord Of Sweet Sounds (1963), and episodes of the ABC's historical serial The Hungry Ones (1963).
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