This is Your Life: Sir Robert Helpmann

Sir Robert Helpmann lived a large life – or maybe several lives in one. The boy from Mount Gambier studied with the world-renowned Anna Pavlova before following his star to London; there, he commanded the stage at the Old Vic as Oberon, opposite actress Vivien Leigh playing Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and danced with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, partnering ballerina Margot Fonteyn. He directed and choreographed for the stage and acted in films, including The Red Shoes (1948) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), in which he made a memorable villain as the Child Catcher.

In 1975, he was taken unawares by the biographical TV show This is Your Life. Helpmann appeared a bit shell-shocked as he was feted by a parade of illustrious guests both in person and via recordings, including Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and The Red Shoes director Michael Powell. 

But there was no mistaking his joy when seeing his sister Sheila, an actor who obviously shared her brother Bobby’s taste for theatrics and drama and made quite an entrance in a shimmering golden caftan.