# Brian Crossley

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'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. 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, 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's Orfeo ed Euridice for the Victorian State Opera; he subsequently directed Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Domenico Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage and Franz Joseph Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa 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

| Year | Production | Role | Type |
| 1969 | Sounds Like Us | | TV series |
| 1970 | Homicide | Richards | TV series |
| 1969–70 | Division 4 | Trixie – Interior Decorator | TV series |
| 1966–72 | Adventure Island | Mrs. Flower Potts / Gracie Galah | TV series |

### Director

| Year | Production | Role | Type |
| 1974–76 | The Box | Director | TV series, 24 episodes |
| 1980 | The Ioslanthe | Director | TV movie |

### Producer

| Year | Production | Role | Type |
| 1974 | The Box | Producer | TV series, 10 episodes |

## Theatre (selected)
### Actor

| Year | Production | Role | Venue / Company |
| 1948 | Let the People Live | Actor | Birmingham Repertory Theatre |
| 1948 | Peer Gynt | Actor | Birmingham Repertory Theatre |
| 1950–51 | Patience | Mr. Bunthorne's Solicitor / Major Murgatroyd | D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, Malvern, Worcestershire |
| 1950–51 | The Yeomen of the Guard | First Citizen | D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, Malvern, Worcestershire |
| 1952 | Gay's the Word | | West End, London |
| 1954 | Tram Stop 10! | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | Under the Sycamore Tree | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | Twelfth Night | Actor | University of Melbourne & VIC/SA regional tour |
| 1955 | The Dark is Light Enough | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | The Time of Your Life | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | You Never Can Tell | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | The Man | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | Return Fare | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1956 | The Gondoliers | The Duke | VIC regional tour |
| 1956 | Arms and the Man | Actor | VIC regional tour |
| 1956 | Trial by Jury | Associate | Theatre Royal, Adelaide |
| 1956 | The Yeomen of the Guard | Actor / Singer | Theatre Royal, Adelaide |
| 1958 | Cox and Box / H.M.S. Pinafore | Actor | Theatre Royal, Adelaide |
| 1958 | Hotel Paradiso | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1958 | The Knight of the Burning Pestle | Actor | University of Melbourne |
| 1961; 1964 | Alice in Wonderland | White Rabbit | Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1962; 1963 | Noddy in Toyland | Mr Pink-Whistle | Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Theatre Royal, Sydney |
| 1963 | Where Do We Go From Here? | Actor | St Martins Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1968 | A Thousand and One Stars | Actor | Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1974 | Death of a Salesman | Actor | SGIO Theatre with Queensland Theatre |
| 1975 | The Wedding of Count Potocki | | South Australia |
| 1978 | The White Horse Inn | Grinkle | Canberra Theatre |
| 1980 | Jack and the Beanstalk | Actor | VIC regional tour |
| 1980 | Goldilocks | Actor | VIC regional tour |
| 1980 | Red Riding Hood | Actor | VIC regional tour |
| 1980 | Alice in Wonderland | Actor | VIC regional tour |
| 1980 | The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe | Actor | VIC regional tour |
| 1980 | Cinderella | Actor | Northland Shopping Centre Theatre, Melbourne & VIC regional tour |

### Director/crew

| Year | Production | Role | Venue / Company |
| 1955 | You Never Can Tell | Assistant Stage Manager | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | Design for Living | Assistant Stage Manager | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street | Assistant Stage Manager | University of Melbourne |
| 1955 | The Man | Stage Manager | University of Melbourne |
| 1960 | Nothing Sacred | Producer | Star Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1961 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Director | University of Melbourne |
| 1965 | Alice in Wonderland | Director | Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide |
| 1968; 1969 | It Happened In Tanjablanca | Director | Viaduct Theatre Club, Melbourne |
| 1969 | The Rape of Lucretia | Director | St Martins Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1969 | L'Orfeo | Director | St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with Victorian Opera |
| 1970 | Count Ory | Director | Camberwell Civic Centre with Victorian Opera |
| 1971 | The Deluded Infidel (aka L’infedeltà delusa or Deceit Outwitted) | Producer | Camberwell Civic Centre with Victorian Opera |
| 1971 | The Secret of Susannah / Help! Help! The Globollinks | Director | Princess Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1974 | The Gondoliers | Producer | Festival Theatre, Adelaide |
| 1975; 1977; 1978 | The Gondoliers | Director | Sydney Opera House, Princess Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1975; 1978 | The Mikado | Producer | Festival Theatre, Adelaide, |
| 1975 | Albert Herring | Director | National Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1976 | Iolanthe | Director | Sydney Opera House, Festival Theatre, Adelaide |
| 1977 | The Mikado | Director | Sydney Opera House |
| 1978; 1980 | The Masters | Writer / Director | Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Seymour Centre, Sydney, Playhouse, Adelaide, Civic Theatre, Burnie, Princess Theatre, Launceston, Theatre Royal, Hobart, Canberra Theatre |
| 1978 | The Yeomen of the Guard | Director | Festival Theatre, Adelaide, Princess Theatre, Melbourne, Regent Theatre, Sydney |
| 1979 | Cox and Box / H.M.S. Pinafore | Director | Princess Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1979 | H.M.S. Pinafore | Director | Canberra Theatre, Polly Woodside, Melbourne |
| 1980 | The Pirates of Penzance | Director | National Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre |
| 1980 | Lock Up Your Daughters | Director | National Theatre, Melbourne, Monash University |
| 1981 | The Medium | Producer | National Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1985 | The Little Sweep | Director | Melbourne Concert Hall |
| 1987 | Princess Ida or, Castle Adamant | Director | Canberra Theatre |
| | The Secret Marriage | Director | |
| | My Fair Lady | Director | |