Emil Wolk | |
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| Born | 1944 (age 79–80) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Years active | 1971-2018 |
Arnold Emil Wolk (born 1944) is an Anglo-American stage director and stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 1988 (1987 season) as 'Best Actor in a Musical' for Kiss Me, Kate , sharing the award with co-star John Bardon. [1] [2]
Emil Wolk was born in Brooklyn, New York to opera singer Jess Walters (Josuoh Wolk) and Emma Walters (née Defina). Wolk moved from his home in New York City to London, England at a young age, when his father took up the position of Principal Baritone at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden [3] under Sir David Webster.
Wolk's early career involved participation with various pioneer theatre companies, including the Freehold Theatre Group, the Pip Simmons Theatre Group and People Show, all of which contributed toward his passion for experimental theatre.
Trained in theatre and specialising in physical performance, Wolk has worked as a performer on screen and as a director and performer on stage, working with, among others, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal National Theatre and The Royal Exchange, Manchester.
During his time at The Royal Exchange, he directed, performed and choreographed collaborations with director Braham Murray, working together on shows including The Recruiting Officer (1992) and Bats (2000). [4]
There, he also worked with actor David Threlfall in The Count of Monte Cristo (1994), and with Hermione Norris and Michael Sheen in Charley's Aunt (1994–95), which he directed. [4] He also directed his own production of Sherlock Holmes In Trouble (2003), written by People Show colleague, Mark Long. [5] [6] The Royal Exchange's production of Animal Crackers (1998), which Wolk co-directed with Greg Hersov, transferred to London's West End. [7]
Between 1997 and 2001, Wolk appeared in the CBBC series Hububb where he played various characters and starred alongside Les Bubb, Ben Keaton, Elaine C. Smith and Miltos Yerolemou.
In 2004-05, Wolk appeared as one of the principal characters in the original stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Palladium Theatre, London. [8]
Emil Wolk's screen appearances include, among others: The Return of Sherlock Holmes - The Six Napoleons (1986) starring Jeremy Brett as the great detective, Escape from Sobibor (1987) with Alan Arkin, The Tall Guy (1989) with Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson, and Stalin (1992) with Robert Duvall. [9] In 2014, Wolk was featured in series three of the popular ABC TV series Rake as Justice Kieran Webster.
In addition to Wolk's career on stage and screen, he has also appeared as an actor in a number of opera productions, working predominantly with Robert Carsen as Puck in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream , most recently at La Scala, Milan in 2009.
After relocating to Australia, Emil Wolk's background in physical performance led him to work as a guest director on Circus Oz's 30th anniversary in 2008. His keen interest and experience in human movement and vaudeville fuelled his work with The Metropolitan Opera as Vaudeville Consultant for their production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci in 2015. His role involved introducing physical movement and acrobatics into the performance. [10]
Wolk was announced as Director of Pagliacci for The Victorian Opera's 2016 season production Laughter and Tears. [11] The production is a collaboration between The Victorian Opera and Circus Oz that features two connecting episodes, 'Laughter' and 'Tears'. [12]
Emil Wolk is married with one daughter. In 2005, he and his family relocated from England to Australia, where he continues to work both as a performer and director.
Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE 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 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.
Brian Paul Conley is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Conley has been the host of The Brian Conley Show, as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. In his 40-year television career, he has starred in multiple award-winning television sitcoms including Time After Time and The Grimleys. In the West End, he has played the lead role in musicals such as Me and My Girl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hairspray, Oliver!, The Music Man, Barnum and Jolson for which he was nominated for a prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. As a musician, he has released five albums, including Brian Conley Sings, Let the Good Times Roll, and Stage to Stage. He has won numerous awards in his career including The National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Performer, Best Live Performer in Manchester Evening News and a British Comedy Award.
Sally Ann Howes was an English actress and singer. Her career on screen, stage and television spanned six decades. She is best known for the role of Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1963, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for her performance in Brigadoon.
The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.
Anthony Rodgers was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film, in television dramas and sitcoms. He starred in several sitcoms, including Fresh Fields, its sequel French Fields, and May to December.
Mark Henderson is a British lighting designer who won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Lighting Design for The History Boys.
Shaun Williamson is an English actor best known as Barry Evans in EastEnders and as a satirical version of himself in the BBC/HBO sitcom Extras, 'Barry off EastEnders'.
Olatunde Olateju Olaolorun "O-T" Fagbenle is an English actor, writer, and director. He has appeared in several films, stage, and television productions. Fagbenle is best known for his role as Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale (2017–2022), for which he received an Emmy nomination, and his portrayal of Barack Obama in The First Lady (2022).
Adrian Keith Noble is a theatre director, and was also the artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003.
Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne was an English ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. At age 87, she was made a DBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List.
Michael Darbyshire was an English actor of stage and screen. He is perhaps best known for his role as Hubert Davenport, the Victorian ghost, in the long running BBC TV children's comedy series Rentaghost.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a musical with music and lyrics written by Richard and Robert Sherman and a book by Jeremy Sams. It is sometimes referred to as Chitty the Musical to distinguish it from the 1968 film of the same name on which it is based, written by Roald Dahl, Ken Hughes, and Richard Maibaum. The 1968 film was based in turn on the book of the same name by Ian Fleming. The show premiered at the London Palladium on April 16, 2002, directed by Adrian Noble before opening on Broadway in 2005.
Jeremy Sams is a British theatre director, composer, and lyricist.
Lee Stephen Mead is an English musical theatre, television actor and occasional singer, best known for winning the title role in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through the BBC TV casting show Any Dream Will Do. As well as subsequent West End roles in Wicked, Legally Blonde: The Musical and The West End Men, Mead has pursued a music career, releasing four solo albums and undertaking concert tours in the UK and Japan.
Tyler Coppin is an American-Australian actor, playwright and American dialect coach for actors in film, television and theatre.
Anthony Ward is a British theatre designer specializing in set and costume design. He studied theatre design at Wimbledon School of Art.
Pagliacci is a 1982 Italian film of Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci, directed by Franco Zeffirelli. All the actors, including Plácido Domingo and Teresa Stratas in the starring roles, were opera singers who sang their own parts. Pagliacci was shot at Milan's La Scala opera house and on a movie sound stage. Georges Prêtre conducted the Orchestra and Choir of La Scala.
Alexander Joseph Doré was a British actor, director and screenwriter. He was best known for his appearance as the First Spy in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also co-starred in the 1968 TV series Virgin of the Secret Service as well as playing Bertram Bright in Bright's Boffins (1970-1972).
J.B. Adams is an American character stage and film actor, director, and singer. He has credits in film, television and, most notably, musical theatre. Originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, he attended Oklahoma City University, where he studied voice, piano, opera, and musical theatre, after which he became a New York City-based Broadway actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway productions of Beauty and the Beast, Annie, Parade, Me and My Girl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Elf: The Musical. He played the role of Morris Farnsworth in the film Far From Heaven, as well as originating the same role in the Off-Broadway musical adaptation (2013). On TV and the web, he has played Santa for Verizon FiOS and has had guest starring roles on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and The Michael J. Fox Show.
Robert Forbes Felton, known professionally as Felix Felton, was a British film, television, stage and voice actor as well as a radio director, composer and author.
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