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Sir Robert Murray Helpmann (né Helpman) (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (now The Royal Ballet) under its creator, Ninette de Valois. He became one of the company's leading men, partnering Alicia Markova and later Margot Fonteyn. When Frederick Ashton, the company's chief choreographer, was called up for military service in the Second World War, Helpmann took over from him while continuing as a principal dancer.
Helpmann, from the outset of his career was an actor as well as a dancer, and in the 1940s he turned increasingly to acting in plays, at the Old Vic and in the West End. Most of his roles were in Shakespeare plays but he also appeared in works by Shaw, Coward, Sartre and others. As a director his range was wide, from Shakespeare to opera, musicals and pantomime.
Helpmann became co-director of the Australian Ballet, in 1965, for whom he created several new ballets. He became sole director in 1975 but disagreements with the company's board led to his dismissal a year later. He directed for Australian Opera and acted in stage plays into the 1980s. Although primarily a stage artist, he appeared in fifteen films between 1942 ( One of Our Aircraft is Missing) and 1984 ( Second Time Lucky), including The Red Shoes, The Tales of Hoffmann, as the Devil in a film version of Igor Stravinsky's ballet-drama The Soldier's Tale ( L'Histoire du soldat) and as the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Helpmann died in Sydney and was given a state funeral in St Andrew's Cathedral. The Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, gave a tribute in the Parliament of Australia, and a motion of condolence was passed – a rare tribute for a non-politician. Helpmann is commemorated in the Helpmann Awards for Australian performing arts, established in his honour in 2001.
After being what his biographer Kathrine Sorley Walker calls "an uninterested and recalcitrant scholar" at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, Helpmann was taken on as a student apprentice by Anna Pavlova when she was on tour in Australia in 1926. He was trained by Alexis Dolinoff, her leading male dancer. An Adelaide Dancer", The Advertiser, 4 December 1926, p. 14 He then joined the theatrical producers J. C. Williamson Ltd, as principal dancer for musicals, revues, and pantomimes, beginning with Franz Lehár's Frasquita in 1927. He later appeared in Katinka, The Merry Widow, The New Moon, Queen High, This Year of Grace and Tip-Toes, appearing with stars such as Gladys Moncrieff, Marie Burke and Maisie Gay. Sorley Walker writes, "His vitality and bravura presentation of dances stopped various shows".Sorley Walker (1998a), p. 7
Robert Helpmann cited Melbourne eccentric, beautician, radio broadcaster, actor and dancer Stephanie Deste as one of the influences over his dancing and acting career.
In April 1934 de Valois created a new ballet, The Haunted Ballroom, with Helpmann and Alicia Markova in the leading roles. The Times commented that of the soloists Helpmann "had the greatest opportunities, and made fine use of them"."Sadler's Wells Ballet", 4 April 1934, p. 10 He co-starred with Markova in Swan Lake, danced in operas, and appeared at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In 1935 he was leading dancer in the revue Stop Press, with music by Irving Berlin."Adelphi Theatre", The Times, 22 February 1935, p. 12 At Sadler's Wells he danced the principal role in another new de Valois ballet, The Rake's Progress, and in 1936 Frederick Ashton choreographed a highly romantic ballet, Apparitions, to music by Liszt, featuring Helpmann and the teenaged Margot Fonteyn. Sorley Walker writes that he and Fonteyn were a "perfectly matched partnership", exemplified by "their superb rendering of the Aurora pas de deux in The Sleeping Beauty". As well as romantic leading roles, Helpmann became known for his gift for comedy. Sorley Walker singles out his roles in Coppélia, Ashton's A Wedding Bouquet and de Valois's The Prospect Before Us. Character roles included the doddery Red King in de Valois' Checkmate, which he first danced at the age of 28 and last danced in 1986 when he was 77.
Helpmann's non-ballet work in the later 1930s included his Oberon in Tyrone Guthrie's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Old Vic, which also starred Vivien Leigh as Titania and Ralph Richardson as Bottom."Old Vic", The Times, 28 December 1937, p. 10 The drama critic of The Times wrote:
The doyen of London critics, James Agate, pronounced Helpmann's Oberon to be, in its way, "the best I have ever seen or ever shall see".Quoted in Sorley Walker (1998a), p. 37 While at the Old Vic Helpmann met the director Michael Benthall; they formed a lifelong personal partnership and frequently worked together in the theatre.
Helpmann returned to Hamlet in 1944 in the title role of the original play, with the Old Vic company. After the laudatory reviews for his Oberon, those for his Hamlet were more mixed. Ivor Brown thought it "eager, intelligent and exciting",Brown, Ivor. "Theatre and Life", The Observer, 13 February 1944, p. 2 Agate called Helpmann's prince "most heart-breaking" Quoted in Howard, p. 122 and the young Peter Brook found Helpmann's fast-paced performance highly exciting,Mazer, p. 98 but other critics thought it a lightweight interpretation, and opinions varied about the quality of Helpmann's verse-speaking."Hamlet: Mr Tyrone Guthrie's Production", The Manchester Guardian, 14 February 1944, p. 3; and "New Theatre", The Times, 12 February 1944; p. 6 During the war Helpmann played his first film roles: the supercilious traitor De Jong in One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942) and the comically fussy Bishop of Ely in Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944).Sorley Walker (1998a), pp. 53 and 69
At the end of the war David Webster was appointed chief executive of the Royal Opera House, tasked with reopening it for opera and ballet after its wartime closure.Haltrecht, pp. 51–52 He invited de Valois and her company to base themselves there to complement the new opera company he was setting up.Haltrecht, pp. 60 and 68 In due course the companies became The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera.Haltrecht, pp. 210–213 and 303 Helpmann and Fonteyn led the ballet company in the opening gala performance of The Sleeping Beauty. The first new work staged at the reopened house was Adam Zero (1946), with a libretto by Benthall and music by Bliss, choreographed by and starring Helpmann as an Everyman figure.Haltrecht, p. 73 The work was well received and was revived the following year, but has not held a place in the repertoire.Sorley Walker (1998b), pp. 251–252 "Adam Zero" . Royal Opera House performance archive. Retrieved 27 May 2019
In 1947, together with Benthall, Helpmann took over the artistic direction of the Duchess Theatre in the West End of London.Gaye, pp. 723–724 They presented a revival of John Webster's tragedy The White Devil with Helpmann as the villainous Flamineo and Rawlings as his equally villainous sister.Duchess Theatre, The Times, 7 March 1947, p. 6 This was well received but their next production, a revival of Leonid Andreyev's He Who Gets Slapped, quickly folded.Sorley Walker (1998b), p. 254 In the same year Helpmann worked on the film The Red Shoes, which he and Leonid Massine choreographed and appeared in. Helpmann joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company at Stratford-upon-Avon for the 1948 season, playing the title role in King John, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and alternating with Paul Scofield in a new production of Hamlet.
In 1953 Helpmann returned to the Old Vic, directing a new production of Murder in the Cathedral with Robert Donat as Becket."The Old Vic", The Times, 1 April 1953, p. 6 On Coronation night in June 1953 Helpmann returned to Covent Garden as a guest artist to dance Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake. The following year he again directed and choreographed an opera there, The Golden Cockerel, with a cast including Mattiwilda Dobbs, Hugues Cuénod and Geraint Evans. "Le Coq d'or (1954)", Royal Opera House performance archive. Retrieved 27 May 2019 The following year brought two contrasting directing engagements: the first was The Tempest at the Old Vic, with Michael Hordern as Prospero, Richard Burton as Caliban and Claire Bloom as Miranda."Old Vic", The Times, 14 April 1954, p. 4 Then followed Noël Coward's musical After the Ball, based on Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan. Helpmann discovered that the combination of Coward and Wilde was not a success: "Everything that Noël sent up, Wilde was sentimental about, and everything that Wilde sent up Noël was sentimental about. It was two different points of view and it didn't work."Castle, p. 213
In May 1955 Helpmann returned to Australia, leading a tour of the country by the Old Vic company, with Hepburn as a guest artist. He played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Angelo in Measure for Measure and Shylock. At the Old Vic in 1956 he directed John Neville and Claire Bloom in Romeo and Juliet,"The Old Vic", The Times, 13 June 1956, p. 3 a production later given on Broadway. He joined the company as an actor later in the year, playing Shylock, Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Saturnius in Titus Andronicus and the title role in Richard III.
During 1957 Helpmann played the title role in Jean-Paul Sartre's Nekrassov,Sorley Walker (1998b), p. 275 and then took over the lead part of Sebastien in Coward's comedy Nude with Violin in London. The role had been created by John Gielgud, who had been succeeded, not altogether satisfactorily, by Michael Wilding.Gielgud, p. 205 Helpmann's vitality revived the spirits of the company, and the play continued its run into the following year.Mander and Mitchenson, p. 460; and "Theatres", The Times, 1 February 1958, p. 2 Helpmann toured Australia in the piece in 1958–59, after he had returned to ballet for a season at Covent Garden in The Rake's Progress, Hamlet, Coppélia, Miracle in the Gorbals and Petrushka. His performance in the last of these was not well received: in the role of a lovelorn puppet, he was seen as too overtly human and intelligent.Sorley Walker (1998b), p. 276$277
In 1962 Peggy van Praagh, formerly of Sadler's Wells, launched a new company, the Australian Ballet, which, Sorely Walker writes, steadily gained ground as "a company full of lively young Australian talent, helped along by top-level international stars like Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Sonia Arova."Sorley Walker (1998c), pp. 411–412 Van Praagh approached Helpmann to create a new work for the company and he suggested a story based around the native Australian lyrebird. He was keen to promote Australian talent, and recruited Sidney Nolan to design the costumes and scenery and Malcolm Williamson to compose the score. The work, titled The Display, was premiered at the Adelaide Festival in March 1964, with Kathleen Gorham in the leading role, to an enthusiastic reception.Sorley Walker (1998c), p. 412 he appeared in a TV special Half an Hour with Robert Helpmann.
Back in London, Helpmann directed and choreographed the first British production of Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot in 1964. He had been approached by its authors to play Merlin in the original Broadway production, but nothing came of the suggestion. For the London production he sought to recapture, more than the American production had done, the sprit of The Once and Future King, the book on which the show was based."A Camelot Made in England", The Times, 10 August 1964, p. 5 The musical received tepid reviews, but Helpmann's production, with designs by John Truscott, was praised as a "dazzling" and "gorgeous spectacle"; the show ran for well over a year."Theatres", The Times, 1 November 1965, p. 2
The success of The Display led to Helpmann's appointment as co-director of the Australian Ballet in 1965. His biographer Christopher Sexton comments that Helpmann and van Praag "complemented each other with their different personalities and skills: she the pedagogue, teacher and administrator; he the restless 'jet-setting' star who spent six months of the year overseas and attracted international names to perform with the company". His ballets for the company during the rest of the 1960s were Yugen (1965); an expanded version of Elektra (1966) and Sun Music (1968).
Helpmann made two more films during the 1960s. In 1966, he played Weng in The Quiller Memorandum and in 1968 he played the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; on the set of the latter film, he was the opposite of his character, as he loved children and was very kind and caring toward the child actors, often protecting them from the director's temper and profanity. In one notable on-set incident, a carriage that Helpmann was riding as the Child Catcher accidentally overturned, but he was able to swing free and "skip" across the rolling vehicle, saving himself from serious injury; his co-star Dick Van Dyke later recalled that feat as the most graceful thing that he had ever seen. The role remains Helpmann's most well-known and acclaimed performance. One critic observed, "He will eternally frighten children as the demented child catcher";Billman, p. 352 others called Helpmann's performance "the most sinister presence I have ever seen on film",Chapman, Gary. "Starchoice", The Times, 26 March 2005, p. 10 and "a devastating turn" that would give children nightmares.Simpson, p. 18
In 1968 Helpmann was appointed artistic director designate of the Adelaide Festival of 1970, and spent much time seeking out the performers for it. As well as showcasing Australian talent he aimed to attract internationally prestigious performers.Sorley Walker (1998c), pp. 423 and 426
By the 1970s the combination of Helpmann and Ashton in comic drag as the Ugly Sisters in Ashton's Cinderella had become a much-loved institution at Covent Garden in various revivals since its 1948 premiere.Anderson, p. 99; Salter, pp. 217 and 222; and Sorley Walker (1998c), p. 422 "Cinderella" , Royal Opera House performance archive. Retrieved 29 May 2019 In 1972 Helpmann succeeded in getting Ashton to join him for a production by the Australian Ballet, but despite Helpmann's urging, Ashton never created a new work for the company, although he restaged his La fille mal gardée for them.Sorley Walker (1998c), pp. 429–430
Helpmann's biographer Elizabeth Salter comments that 1974 was "a year of disaster" for both directors of the Australian Ballet.Salter, p. 238 Van Praag was forced by arthritis to retire, and Helpmann's partner, Michael Benthall, died. The two men had lived together in London since the 1940s, and although both had extracurricular affairs they remained devoted to each other, and Helpmann felt the loss deeply.Sorley Walker (1998c), p. 434; and Salter, p. 238
1974 was also the year of the last ballet created by Helpmann, the plotless Perisynthyon. He commissioned scores from two Australian composers in succession, but finding neither satisfactory he turned at the last minute to Sibelius's First Symphony. The late changes caused inadequate preparation time for the dancers, and the piece was not well received.Sorley Walker (1998c), pp. 432–433 The following year disagreements between Helpmann and the board of the Australian Ballet came to a head. He was outspoken about the inadequacy of the company's budget, and refused to cut costs, on the grounds that doing do would be artistically and technically damaging. He made it publicly clear that he felt the board had become "dominated by money-men who had no experience or understanding of artistic matters". The board decided that he must go, and tried to ease him out quietly. He did not cooperate, and made it known that he had been dismissed: "I want the public and the dancers to know that I didn't decide to leave them. I would have stayed with them until I dropped dead."Sorley Walker (1998c), p. 437
In 1977 Peter Wright, director of the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, invited Helpmann to appear with the company in two of his old starring roles: the Red King in Checkmate and Dr Coppélius in Coppélia. British ballet audiences had seen little of him in leading roles for some years, and his return was greeted with enthusiasm. The ballet critic of The Times described his Coppélius as "a legend come to life",Percival, John. "Comic legend returns", The Times, 3 May 1977, p. 9 and his Financial Times colleague wrote of Helpmann's "riotous and wonderful control", concluding, "British ballet owes Helpmann a vast debt – his present performances in Coppélia and Checkmate increase it still further".Crisp, Clement. "Ballet", Financial Times, 3 May 1977, p. 17
In New Zealand, Helpmann supervised the 1981 world premiere of the musical Aloha he had co-authored with Hawaiian composer Eaton Magoon Jr, staged by the Hamilton Operatic Society at the Founders Theatre directed by Robert Young, with Derek Williams as orchestrator and musical director.(27 October 1981). "Author Robert full of praise". Waikato Times, New Zealand.Day, Paul. (19 October 1981). Review: Hamilton Says Aloha To Musical. Founders Theatre. The New Zealand Herald.Cryer, Max. (25 October 1981). "Hamilton produces ambitious musical" and "Kitsch Aloha goes down a real treat". p.9. New Zealand Times Aloha. Hamilton Heritage Collections. A cast recording produced by Carl Doy was made of the show at Mandrill Studios. Magoon, Eaton, Jr, 1922-2018, Derek Metzger, 1962-, Williams, Derek, 1952-, Robert Helpmann, 1909-1986. (1981). Aloha : a spectacular new musical / music and lyrics by Eaton Magoon Jnr. Musicals > Excerpts > Anthony Norton Collection, ATL-Group-00433: National Library of New Zealand. 'Aloha > New Zealand Cast'. Vinyl. 1981. Producer: Carl Doy. In 1983 there was a Hawaiian production of the show, followed in 1985 by a Michael Edgley revival production starring Patricia Morison at His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, His Majesty's Theatre directed by Joe Layton with Derek Williams rehired as Musical Director.'The Arts'. (12 June 1985). 'Teacher Continues Aloha Association'. Page 24. Rotorua Daily Post (Rotorua, New Zealand) New Zealand-born singer Derek Metzger starred in all Aloha productions.
The following year Helpmann appeared with Diana Rigg in Harvey Schmidt's musical, Colette, which opened in Seattle but folded before reaching Broadway. He then made his last British appearance in an acting role, playing Cardinal Pirelli in a revival of Sandy Wilson's Valmouth at the Chichester Festival. Irving Wardle wrote in The Times, "It is not a large part, but Helpmann's hooded smiles and baleful oeuillades, his capacity to express elegant corruption to his beringed finger-tips, lodge one imperishable image."Wardle, Irving. "Theatre", The Times, 20 May 1982, p. 13
In 1983 Helpmann directed Gounod's opera Roméo et Juliette in Sydney, and later in the year appeared there as the elderly Bosie in Justin Fleming's play about Oscar Wilde, The Cobra, with Mark Lee as Bosie's young self. In 1984, together with Googie Withers and John McCallum, he toured in Ted Willis's play Stardust, and joined his sister Sheila to record two episodes of the Australian soap opera A Country Practice, which were shown in 1985. Early in that year he was in the US directing a revival of the operetta The Mery Widow for the San Diego Opera. In June, at the Sydney Opera House, he directed Joan Sutherland in Vincenzo Bellini's I Puritani. His last stage appearances were as the Red King in Checkmate, with the Australian Ballet, in Melbourne and Sydney in May 1986.
In The Daily Telegraph, de Valois wrote in an obituary tribute:
The Helpmann Academy in South Australia was named in his honour; it is a partnership of the major visual and performing arts education and training institutions in South Australia offering award courses for people seeking professional careers in the arts. "History" , The Helpmann Academy. Retrieved 1 June 2019 The Helpmann Awards were instituted 2001, and recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors. "About the Helpmann Awards" , Helpmann Awards. Retrieved 1 June 2019 The Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre is named after him at his birthplace in Mount Gambier. "Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre" , Mount Gambier Point. Retrieved 1 June 2019 Onstage, Helpmann has been commemorated in the play LyreBird (Tales of Helpmann), by Tyler Coppin. "Lyre Bird-Tales of Helpmann", Evening Standard, 5 July 2000.
Vic-Wells Ballet
The English actress Margaret Rawlings, who was touring Australia, was impressed by Helpmann. She encouraged him to pursue a career in Britain, and provided him with an introduction to Ninette de Valois, director of the Vic-Wells Ballet (later named the Sadler's Wells Ballet). Helpmann left Australia in 1932, and did not return until 1955.Sorley Walker (1998a), p. 9 De Valois accepted him into her company. He impressed her – she later wrote "Everything about him proclaims the artist born"De Valois, p. 11 – although she noted not only his strengths but also his weaknesses: "talented, enthusiastic, extremely intelligent, great facility, witty, cute as a monkey, quick as a squirrel, a sense of theatre and his own possible achievements therein" but "academically technically weak, lacking in concentration, too fond of a good time and too busy having it".Salter, pp. 52–53 In the mid-1930s, probably at Rawlings's suggestion, he added a second "n" to his surname, to give it a more foreign and exotic air.
1940s
During the Second World War Sadler's Wells Ballet became a prominent contributor to public morale, giving London seasons interspersed with a demanding programme of provincial tours.Sorley Walker (1987), p. 233 Helpmann's workload often required him to dance leads in three performances in one day, and when Ashton was called up for active service in 1941,Anderson, p. 78 Helpmann took on the additional role of choreographer to the company.Sorley Walker (1987), p. 231 Ashton, in his enforced absence from the company, observed Helpmann's rise to pre-eminence with feelings of envy, and their relationship became edgy on Ashton's part.Sorley Walker (1998a), pp. 63–64 The ballets that Helpmann created for the wartime company were Comus (1942, based on Milton), The Birds (1942, to Respighi's Gli uccelli), Miracle in the Gorbals (1944, a story of redemption with a plot by Benthall and music by Arthur Bliss),Anderson pp. 310–311 and a version of Hamlet set to Tchaikovsky's music. While on leave from the RAF in 1943, Ashton created a new ballet for Helpmann, The Quest, a patriotic tale of Saint George, with music by William Walton, who commented that Helpmann in the lead "looked more like the Dragon than St George."Palmer, Christopher (1990). Notes to Chandos CD 8871 The music has survived but the ballet has not.
1950s
In 1950 Helpmann directed an opera for the first time – the Covent Garden production of Madama Butterfly, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in the title role. The production outlasted its director: after many revivals its final performances at the Royal Opera House were in 1993. "Madam Butterfly", Royal Opera House performance archive. Retrieved 27 May 2019 The following year he joined Olivier and Vivien Leigh at the St James's Theatre, where they presented Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Helpmann played Octavius Caesar in the first and Apollodorus in the second. When the productions were taken to Broadway theatre at the end of the year he played the same roles. He appeared in another Shaw play the following year, as the male lead, the Doctor, opposite Katharine Hepburn as Epifania, in The Millionairess."New Theatre", The Times, 28 June 1952, p. 8 Between these plays Helpmann acted in the Powell and Pressburger film The Tales of Hoffmann, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham and choreographed by Ashton. Helpmann played all four of the villains in the various stories within the opera, his singing voice dubbed by the Welsh bass Bruce Dargavel. "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) , British Film Institute. Retrieved 27 May 2019
1960s
At the start of the 1960s Helpmann worked mostly in non-ballet theatre, forgoing the opportunity to create the role of the Widow Simone in Ashton's La fille mal gardée in favour of directing Vivien Leigh and Mary Ure in Jean Giraudoux's play Duel of Angels on Broadway.Sorley Walker (1998b), pp. 278-279 In 1962 he performed again for Australian audiences in another Old Vic company, this time headed by Vivien Leigh, which appeared in the Far East, South America and Australia. In 1963 he choreographed his sixth work for The Royal Ballet, the short-lived and critically damned Elektra, with music by Malcolm Arnold and featuring Nadia Nerina, David Blair, Monica Mason and Derek Rencher."Spectacular Helpmann dance-drama", The Times, 27 March 1963, p. 15; Kennedy, James, "Helpmann's Elektra", The Guardian, 27 March 1963, p. 7; and Bland, Alexander, "Helpmann aims too low", The Observer, 31 March 1963, p. 28 He also supervised a new production of Swan Lake for the company, with important new choreographic contributions from Ashton.Sorley Walker (1998b), p. 281 In the same year he played Prince Tuan in the film 55 Days at Peking.
1970s
Under Helpmann's direction the line-up for the 1970 Adelaide Festival was, by common consent, exceptionally impressive. "Giants dominate the SA festival", The Canberra Times, 7 March 1970, p. 10 Among those appearing were the Royal Shakespeare Company, led by Judi Dench and Donald Sinden, in The Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night; Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears brought the English Opera Group; there were art exhibitions from Pompeii and Mexico. Dance was represented not only by the Australian Ballet, but also by the Royal Thai Ballet, the Balinese Dance Company and the Georgian State Dance Company. Nureyev was guest artist with the Australian Ballet in a revival of Helpmann's Hamlet, new to the company's repertoire and greatly admired.Sorley Walker (1998c), p. 426 Nureyev also presented his version of Marius Petipa's classic ballet Don Quixote, dancing the romantic lead, Basilio, with Helpmann in the title role of the deluded knight. This was the first time the two dancers had worked together; they took to each other with enthusiasm and continued their fruitful professional relationship. Nureyev continued to play Helpmann's old role of Hamlet in revivals of the 1942 ballet, and the two starred in a film of Don Quixote with the Australian company in 1973, shown internationally and subsequently published on DVD.
1980s
In 1981 Helpmann staged another revival of his ballet Hamlet, this time featuring Anthony Dowell. The production was given first at Covent Garden and was later taken to New York. In Sydney, Helpmann directed and choreographed Handel's opera Alcina, and in the US he directed Lilli Palmer in a one-woman show about Sarah Bernhardt, Sarah in America.
Death
Helpmann died of emphysema in Sydney on 28 September 1986, at the age of 77.Sorley Walker (1998c), pp. 442–443 He was given the rare tribute of a state funeral, held on 2 October at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. Tributes were paid in both Houses of the Parliament of Australia.Sorley Walker (1998c), pp. 443–444 In the Senate all senators present stood in silence. This was noted as a rarity, and it was put on record that "it is only in exceptional circumstances that motions of condolence are moved for distinguished Australians who have not sat in the Parliament". Senator Stan Collard said:
In the House of Representatives the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, said, "No one should underestimate Sir Robert Helpmann's role in the development of the growing maturity of Australia's art and culture. ... He demonstrated to the world the diversity of this nation's talents and capabilities."
In London a memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden (known as "the actors' church"); Ashton represented Princess Margaret, Fonteyn gave the address, a tribute was read from de Valois, and the British ballet and theatre were represented by some of their best-known members.
Honours, reputation and legacy
In 1954 Helpmann was appointed to the Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden) and in 1957 he was created a Knight of the Cedar (Lebanon). He was appointed CBE in 1964, named as Australian of the Year for 1965, and was created a Knight Bachelor in 1968.
An unsigned obituary in The Times caused upset by calling Helpmann "A homosexual of the proselytising kind, who could turn young men on the borderline his way.""Sir Robert Helpmann", The Times 29 September 1986, p. 14. It was quickly pointed out that Helpmann kept his professional and private lives firmly separate.Kersley, Leo, "Sir Robert Helpmann", The Times, 7 October 1986, p. 17 An assessment in The Guardian ranked him as capable in "princely" roles in classic ballets, but "peerless" in dramatic parts, and best of all in comic roles.Kennedy, James. "The prince of Sadler's Wells", The Guardian, 29 September 1986, p. 13 The Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) describes Helpmann as "the complete man of the theatre", but adds that in some people's view he worked in too many fields to achieve supremacy in any one of them. Malcolm Williamson observed, "he never became a Gielgud, Olivier or Redgrave, or an Ashton, Balanchine or Petit because he was the most pluralistic of the lot"; the ADB quotes the dancer Moira Shearer: "he wasn't a great dancer – he wasn't a great actor – but he was most certainly a great mime, the perfect bridge between the two". The New York Times said of him:
Ballets choreographed by Helpmann
Filmography
1942 One of Our Aircraft Is Missing De Jong Film debut 1944 Henry V Bishop of Ely 1946 Caravan Wycroft 1948 The Red Shoes Ivan Boleslawsky 1951 The Tales of Hoffmann Lindorf/Coppelius/Dapertutto/Dr. Miracle 1956 The Iron Petticoat Major Ivan Kropotkin The Big Money The Reverend Not released for two years 1963 55 Days at Peking Prince Tuan 1964 The Soldier's Tale The Devil 1966 The Quiller Memorandum Weng 1968 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Child Catcher 1972 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland The Mad Hatter 1973 Don Quixote Alonso Quijano 1977 The Mango Tree Professor 1978 Patrick Doctor Roget Puzzle Shepherd TV movie 1984 Second Time Lucky The Devil Final film 1987 Don Quixote of La Mancha Don Quixote (voice) TV movie
See also
Notes, references and sources
Notes
Sources
Books
Journals
External links
Categories: 1909 Births, 1986 Deaths, 20th-century Australian Lgbtq People, 20th-century Australian Male Actors, 20th-century Ballet Dancers, Actors Awarded Knighthoods, Australian Choreographers, Australian Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, Australian Expatriates In The United Kingdom, Australian Gay Actors, Australian Knights Bachelor, Australian Lgbtq Dancers, Australian Male Ballet Dancers, Australian Male Film Actors, Australian Male Stage Actors, Australian Of The Year Award Winners, Australian Theatre Directors, Choreographers Of The Royal Ballet, Deaths From Emphysema, Gay Dancers, Helpmann Awards, Lgbtq Choreographers, Lgbtq People From South Australia, Lgbtq Theatre Directors, People Educated At Prince Alfred College, People From Mount Gambier, South Australia, Principal Dancers Of The Royal Ballet, Respiratory Disease Deaths In New South Wales
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