Brian Stow Crossley (5 October 1926 – 8 September 2012) was an English-born actor, director and drama tutor, who after starting his career in his native country, emigrated to Australia. He appeared in and directed numerous roles in theatre and on television over a career spanning more than 50 years, including directing straight theatre, musicals, opera and operetta.

Biography

He was born in Shipley in West Yorkshire, England to engineering draughtsman Harry Crossley and Minnie Stow. He attended Birmingham College of Speech and Drama and performed as part of Birmingham Repertory Theatre, he appeared in a production of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

's '' Patience'' and in 1950 was invited to join the chorus for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, playing a variety of small roles. In 1952 he played in '' Gay's the Word'' on the West End, he emigrated to Australia in 1954, where he moved to Melbourne to join the

Union Theatre Repertory Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre compa ...

. He toured Australia and New Zealand in 1956 with the J.C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, but with the arrival of television he turned his attention to the screen. He appeared in a variety of television programs, including ''

Homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

'', '' Division 4'' and '' Consider Your Verdict'', as well as directing for serial '' The Box''. His most successful role was on children's series '' Adventure Island'', where he played Mrs Flower Potts from 1967 to 1972. During this period he also directed for the stage; his first directing project was

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

's ''

Orfeo ed Euridice ' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on Orpheus, the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the ''azione teatrale'', mea ...

'' for the

Victorian State Opera Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as ...

; he subsequently directed Benjamin Britten's '' The Rape of Lucretia'', Domenico Cimarosa's ''

The Secret Marriage ' (''The Secret Marriage'') is a dramma giocoso in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the 1766 play '' The Clandestine Marriage'' by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick. It was first performe ...

'' and Franz Joseph Haydn's ''

L'infedeltà delusa ''L'infedeltà delusa'' (''Deceit Outwitted''), Hob. 28/5, is an operatic ''burletta per musica'' in two acts by Joseph Haydn. The Italian libretto was by Marco Coltellini. Performance history The earliest recorded performance, which may have b ...

'' and collaborated extensively with Dennis Olsen. He directed a wide variety of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and in 1973 was appointed a director of the National Theatre's Opera School. He moved to the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education in Queensland around 1982. Crossley died in Melbourne on 8 September 2012, aged 85.

Television

Actor

Director

Producer

Theatre (selected)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crossley, Brian 1926 births 2012 deaths 20th-century Australian male actors Australian television directors Australian male musical theatre actors Australian male television actors Actors from Shipley, West Yorkshire Australian theatre directors British emigrants to Australia Male actors from Yorkshire