STUART WAGSTAFF - 1925-2015
Stuart Wagstaff AM, the entertainment legend whose multi-faceted career was an adornment to Australian theatre and television, died peacefully at Greenwich Hospital aged 90 on March 10 2015.
After 50 years in the business and over 40 of those years in Australia, Stuart had continued success in television, theatre and musicals of which he said, to Peter Thompson on the ABC’s Talking Heads, “I've done eleven major musicals and I still can’t sing. And I’m not being modest.”
He was much loved and admired by the theatre community and the general public alike. Among many paying tribute on Facebook today, Anne Looby wrote of knowing and working with him over the years, “He was a kind and gracious human being,” and Phil Scott wrote, “You taught me, and many other people, such a lot – including how to be a gentleman.”
Stuart first came to Australia in 1958 to appear in the JC Williamson production, Not in the Book, after a successful early career in England. In 1959 he was cast in My Fair Lady , a production with which he was associated for the next four and a half years. He then took over as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music although the man he described as “a martinet” was not his favourite.
In 1964 he appeared as the host of the variety show Studio 'A' and in 1965 he became the "Beast" on the daytime show, Beauty & The Beast. During hi two and a half years the show he also appeared in stage productions including There's a Girl in My Soup, Present Laughter, and Private Lives.
He maintained a busy television and theatre career including a three-year stretch in Hollywood. Two years as a permanent panellist on Graham Kennedy’s Blankety Blanks was followed seven seasons as the host/presenter on the ABC's Stuart Wagstaff's World Playhouse.
As well as television he kept faith with his first love, the theatre and the exhausting yet rewarding task of taking theatre all over Australia in many national tours. In late 1979 he appeared again as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady on a successful national tour that he co-produced. He also produced Sydney and Melbourne seasons of the American stage comedy Father's Day. In the 1980s he toured as the Narrator in the highly successful Rocky Horror Show.
In 1982 he played the lead in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, including a national tour. The late 1980s and 1990s saw Stuart on stage with Sydney seasons and subsequent tours of Noises Off (again), Black Comedy, The Winslow Boy, Lend Me A Tenor and the Gershwin musical, Crazy For You. More recently, he appeared in the role of Old Cookson in Pan at the Capitol Theatre, as well as Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Oliver!
Stuart Wagstaff spoke openly but without drama of a miserable childhood at the hands of an abusive father and told Peter Thompson that his ambition and determination to succeed came from being told that he was “worthless”. He actively supported many children’s charities, most notably Variety and also the Actors Benevolent Fund. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1998 in recognition of his service to the community.
