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He helped British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean learn various circus stunts for their free program at the 1983 World Championships, where they used music from the show. (Torvill and Dean won that year.) Shared a Spanish villa with John Lennon while they were filming How I Won the War (1967). He has two daughters, Emma and Lucy by his ex-wife, Gabrielle Lewis. Lucy was married in the Fall of 1994 and Emma married Jeremy Bevan in November, 1994 in England, UK. He does have another child, with a former girlfriend, but he, the child, and her mother, and both families prefer to keep any history about that private. He has won many awards over the years. Two Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards for his roles in "Barnum" (1981) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1987). He also has won the coveted Tony Award in 1988 for "The Phantom of the Opera", Drama Desk Awards, a BAFTA, and numerous others for his achievements in entertainment. Is a proud grandfather, but prefers to be known to them as "Papa". Won Broadway's 1988 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "Phantom of the Opera." Calls himself "Anglo-Irish", as he is part English, Irish, and Welsh. Early in his career, he performed in the Shakespearean play, Coriolanus in the role of the Second Citizen and Second Serving Man. Interestingly enough, Gerard Butler, who played the phantom in The Phantom of the Opera (2004), also performed in the same play as a young man in the same role. As the deformed phantom, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" he earned 7 1/2% of the takings. E! Channel nominated him one of the Most Sexiest Men in the World in 1995. Has worked with rodents in two shows, "Flowers for Algernon" (he played Charlie Gurdon) and in the recent "The Woman in White" (as Count Fosco) and doesn't mind them at all. Loves to travel. He used to be an avid smoker, till he quit in the 1970s for health reasons. He was an avid Guinness drinker but quit that early on, also for health reasons. He still sees Ian Adam for occasional singing lessons and it was at one such lesson where Sarah Brightman heard him sing and recommended him to Andrew Lloyd Webber for the role of the Phantom. He sang and performed dramatic opera as a young boy. He played Sammy the Sweepboy in "Let's Make an Opera" and then Benjamin Britten hired him to play Japeth in "Noye's Flood", based on the Biblical story of Noah's Flood in Genesis. When he returned to studying singing seriously, he took up singing operatic arias to get his voice in shape, especially for the role of the Phantom. His youngest daughter, Lucy (by Gabrielle Lewis), actually sang with her father on his record, "The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber", in the song "Other Pleasures/The First Man You Remember", and it was the last time they ever recorded something together. As a singer, he practices for two hours a day warming up his voice and then another hour to sing normally. He made his film debut at the tender age of 15 in the British children's film, "Soapbox Derby" for the Children's Film Foundation. He also did his very first stunt work in this film, diving off into the River Thames to rescue a boy from drowning. He later had to have his stomach pumped to get rid of the filthy water from the Thames. To prepare for the role of Phineas Taylor Barnum (or better known as [error]) in the London production of "Barnum," he took up studying circus training at the Big Apple Circus School in New York City. After further training in preparation for the second run of 'Barnum,' he was awarded a British Amateur Gymnastics Association badge and certificate as a qualified coach. Is a fan of the old Hollywood style of films; ranging from the 1950s all the way back to the silent film era. Some of the performers he enjoys to watch on film are Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Harold Lloyd, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy, Gene Kelly, James Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Mary Pickford, and even Buster Keaton, with whom he worked in his first movie musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) in 1965-6. Michael played the role of Hero, while Buster Keaton played the role of Erronious, which was Buster's last film role. Once treated a little girl named Vanessa, who was suffering from the final stages of leukemia, to a very rare, private performance of "Barnum" (which he had been doing at the time) as a special treat for her, even having the theater remove some of the seats to make way for her nurses, hospital bed, and family to come and watch and Michael and the entire cast performed the show just for her. Vanessa, tragically, later died of the disease and even today, he still fondly remembers her. As Frank Spencer, in "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" (1973), he did many stunts, some quite hazardous to the normal person, in portraying a certain scene or part. So much so did people associate him with this image that they literally thought he was as clumsy in real life as he was on the show. But in reality, although he admitted to a few comical episodes in real life in the past, he is in no way anywhere near as clumsy as his character Frank is. During his early career, he used to do heavy dramatic plays - such as Shakespeare, French tragedy, satire, and etc. One of his first dramatic roles was when he played the part of Henry the 8th on an early BBC Radio show, and later on performed in more than 100 radio broadcasts. He also was on the early "live" BBC soap operas playing motorcycle accident victims, bad guys, drug addicts and such. His father, contrary to some reports, is not Arthur Dumble-Smith. Dumble-Smith was an Royal Air Force pilot killed in WWII two years before Michael was born. Born out of wedlock, he was raised by his widowed mother, Doris, and her parents, and given his mother's first husband's surname.