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Robert Helpmann
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'I can do something with that face'- so Ninette de Valois famously said when she first saw Robert Helpmann. He had just arrived in London to join the Vic-Wells Ballet; he was 24, and in his native Australia he had already begun his career as an actor and dancer, including a tour with Pavlova's company as a student. With de Valois' support he became the company's leading male dancer, partnering Fonteyn as she grew to greatness in the classics, and choreographed a number of works in the 40s at least two of which earned a place in the repertoire. Most of all, he created unforgettable characters, both comic and dramatic, in many works by Ashton and de Valois. He had the priceless gift of being able to hold an audience, no matter what he was doing. 
How good a dancer was he? There was a wide range of opinion: some thought him technically lacking, others rated him among the greats. Seen from this distance, they were probably both right. It seems as if his technique (though certainly not strong by today's standards) was good enough to get him through the classics: but that the technique wasn't really the point - he had such a strong theatrical personality that he could give the impression of being a great dancer. He danced the widest possible range of roles: Carabosse as well as the Prince in Sleeping Beauty, Dr Coppelius as well as Franz, and a whole gallery of characters which he created or brought newly to life. Certainly he was great character dancer - probably only David Bintley has ever come near him in roles like these. Even the photographs of him in such parts as Mr O'Reilly in de Valois' The Prospect before Us make me laugh. He was immensely popular and drew audiences both on his own and as part of 'Bobby-and-Margot'. Helpmann's career as a choreographer was launched in the war, when de Valois needed someone to fill the gap left when Ashton was called up. Hamlet and Miracle in the Gorbals are the best remembered - indeed Hamlet was revived as recently as the 1980s. It wasn't a straightforward adaptation of the play, but an intensely theatrical vision of the thoughts passing through the mind of the dying Prince - played, of course, by Helpmann himself. Miracle in the Gorbals was something quite new - a morality tale set in the Glasgow slums (with a note advising that it wasn't suitable for children!). It was strong stuff, predating MacMillan's psychodramas by 20 years. Helpmann's last ballet for the company was the melodramatic Elektra in 1963 - a disaster by most accounts - but he went on to create successful new works for the Australian Ballet.
Jennifer Delaney writes: Helpmann maintained a parallel career as an actor while with the Sadler's Wells Ballet. The close links between the Vic-Wells ballet and the Old Vic acting company meant that he made his debut as Oberon in 1937. Assorted acting roles followed, mostly in Shakespeare, which the Old Vic specialised in, and which in the late 1930s meant that Helpmann's contemporaries on stage included Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, until in 1944, Helpmann played Hamlet, two years after he choreographed the ballet version. In 1948 he went to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford for a season with Sir Barry Jackson's troupe, a hugely successful company. There he played Hamlet, Shylock and King John. His Hamlet, in particular, with Claire Bloom as Ophelia, met with critical success.
His subsequent acting career was more notable in film, where he choreographed the opening ballet for The Red Shoes, and appeared in a number of 1950s British films. Perhaps his most memorable part in film was the Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, remembered by anyone who has ever watched the film on Christmas morning. Helpmann also worked as a director, directing stage productions of Murder in the Cathedral, The Tempest, Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet for the Old Vic
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