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Most recent stage appearances: Mr Chairman and producer
of Victorian Music Hall at the late lamented Players' Theatre,
Charing Cross; God in Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde at St
Mary's, Potter's Bar. Recent voices: Winston Churchill for Virgin
Trains radio commercial, sundry characters in Howdi Gaudi, a
twenty-six part cartoon series for Fireside Favourites, Death Eater
in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the voice of C. S.
Lewis for a
DVD documentary add-on for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
(Disney). Hundreds of BBC radio drama productions, most recently
Death
in
an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Small
Gods.
 To contact Rebecca Kilgarriff: Email: kilgarriffr@aol.com Agent: Andrew Charles Vincent Shaw Associates (020) 7240 2927 My daughter Rebecca Kilgarriff is a graduate of Glasgow University and of the Drama Studio, London. Played barrister Alison Ashton in Jeffrey Archer's The Accused on tour and at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Revoiced the character of Solange, George Sand's daughter, in a TV epic on the life of Chopin; national tour of Peter Nichols' play So Long Life playing Imogen, Stephanie Cole's grand-daughter. Television appearance as a Music Hall artiste in a Victorian Week promotion for BBC Prime. National tour of Chekhov's The Three Sisters, understudying Imogen Stubbs. Various roles in Spell at the Wimbledon Studio Theatre. See and hear her entry in Spotlight. Dozens of voice-overs. In March 2006 appeared in Shunt's London Bridge production of Amato Saltone. ------oOo------ Michael Kilgarriff was born 1937 in Brighton, Sussex, England, a holiday resort fifty-two miles due south of London. An only but happy child of devoted parents; educated Xaverian College, Preston Park, Brighton (Confraternity of St Francis Xavier). 1953-6 worked ingloriously and wretchedly as junior clerk for Barclays Bank at Shoreham, Steyning, and Lancing. Escaped to Argyle Theatre, Birkenhead, for first job as an actor through ability to play piano - a schools tour of Alice in Wonderland playing six characters and accompanying the songs and dances. At 6' 6" the tallest Mad March Hare in the business. Then followed years of repertory (York, Windsor, Bristol Old Vic, etc., etc) and television, plus the huge break of appearing as The Ogre in Humpty Dumpty at the Palladium for the 1959/60 season. In 1964 began appearing in Music Hall, also joined what was then known as The BBC Drama Repertory Company for the first time, performing in literally hundreds of radio broadcasts as diverse as Cyrano de Bergerac with Sir Ralph Richardson, Othello with Paul Scofield, The Dales, The Archers, and Listen with Mother. 1964 was also memorable for first meeting with one Sarah Greatorex, a radio drama production assistant who four years later was to become Mrs Michael Kilgarriff. They have one child, the actress Rebecca Kilgarriff (see above). In 1966 first appeared in BBC tv's Dr Who as Cyber Controller. Later roles in this extraordinarily popular sci-fi series were Second Ogron, The Robot, and again the Cyber Controller. Still regularly receiving fan-mail. Went into management with fellow actor and Music Hall enthusiast Johnny Dennis, putting on theatre and corporate shows all over UK and in Sweden; also presented shipboard entertainment for Holland-America and P&O. Johnny was Best Man at Michael and Sarah's wedding in San Rafael, California, in 1968. Another exciting venture was a revival of Beyond the Fringe in the UK and the US. Began writing while working on the film Camelot in Spain, a radio dramatisation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, still a best seller in audio cassette and CD formats. Many books and scripts for radio and television followed, including a survey of the monologue for BBC R4 entitled Talking to Oneself, broadcast in February 2000. Further pantomime experience: three seasons with the great Stanley Baxter and two more at the London Palladium with such luminaries as Dora Bryan, Frankie Howerd, Alfred Marks, and Danny La Rue. Theatre appearances include the Brighton Festival, the City of London Festival, and a Promenade Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in Down by the Greenwood Side, directed by its composer (Sir) Harrison Birtwistle. Stage work includes numerous business conferences as far afield as New Orleans and Palma, a number of plays with the eminent farceur Brian (Lord) Rix and over thirty-five years wielding the gavel as Mr Chairman at the legendary Players' Theatre under Charing Cross Station. Since the Players' was founded in 1936 Michael Kilgarriff is the only person to have appeared in all four categories - as a solo artiste, as Mr Chairman, and as accompanist. Has also produced. His slide-lecture at the piano on the history of the Music Hall has been seen everywhere from Bolton Public Library to the QE2. Recent television appearances: John Brown to Miriam Margolyes' Queen Victoria in Channel 4's Without Walls, and the social reformer Charles Booth in Tales from the Map-Room (BBC2). His deep resonant and distinctive voice keep him in demand for cartoons, film dubbing, and radio and television commercials. Lives in Ealing, a part of West London known as The Queen of the Suburbs. Member of: Concert Artistes' Association, British Equity, The Irving Society (Hon Secretary), New Players' Theatre Club, Society for Theatre Research, British Music Hall Society. Full driving licence; swims. Hair: fair; eyes: blue. |
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