Robert Helpmann on a dance to stardom from South Australia; also achieves in world of film, opera, festivals

Robert Helpmann spanned theatre, film, opera and ballet as both dancer and choreographer.

With a stage-struck mother a driving force in his career, Robert Helpmann went from a childhood in Mount Gambier to became an international figure in ballet but also theatre, film and opera. He gave the benefit of his experience as consultant (1968) and artistic director (1970) of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

Legendary Adelaide dance teacher Nora Stewart was an early influence on Helpmann. She “taught me to appreciate classical music and to understand what dance meant,” he said.

Among Helpmann’s first ballet appearance was in the chorus at Adelaide's Theatre Royal for the 1924 premiere of Kenneth Duffield's first and only musical written in Australia, Hullo Healo. By 1926, Helpmann had joined the touring dance company of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The high point of his dance career was the Sadler's Wells Ballet tour of the United States in 1949, when he partnered Margot Fonteyn in the lead roles of The Sleeping Beauty.

After producing his own ballets, Helpmann also appeared in many films, including the Powell and Pressburger ballet films The Red Shoes (1948), when he was also choreographer, and The tales of Hoffmann (1951). In 1942 he played the Dutch Quisling in the Powell/Pressburger film One of our aircraft is missing (1942) and later played the Chinese Prince Tuan in 55 Days at Peking (1963).

After his return as co director of The Australian Ballet, Helpmann continued in films, notably as the evil Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Another family film role was the Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972). For The Australian Ballet, he co-directed and starred with Rudolf Nureyev in Don Quixote (1973). He also starred in the 1978 horror cult Patrick.

Helpmann is remembered in South Australia through the annual national Helpmann entertainment awards, the Helpmann Academy and a theatre named after him at Mount Gambier.