As a boy, he loved workshop, French class, gymnastics, sports, and music and drama class. He was also voted as a young boy, the class clown, to escape being bullied at school.
As a child, he was a loner, due to girls rejecting him as he was not handsome enough and bullies from his schools making fun of him. So his first real acting began when, as a child, he invented characters and performed all the parts, to make up for being lonely.
As a singer, he practices for two hours a day warming up his voice and then another hour to sing normally.
As a young boy Michael sold eggs from a stall on Brixton Market in London.
As a young boy, before turning to acting, he wanted to be either a pilot or a soccer player. But when he discovered making people laugh, he chose acting.
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.
As the deformed phantom, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" he earned 7 1/2% of the takings.
Calls himself "Anglo-Irish", as he is part English, Irish, and Welsh.
Created the role of Count Fosco for Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Woman in White", in which he wore a fat suit and facial prosthetics that covered most of his face. He was so unrecognizable, people who knew him, when they saw the show or even backstage, didn't even know it was him, until he spoke.
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.
During the celebrations for the Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee in 1976, Michael toured the children's street parties near his home in Bedfordshire. The kids were delighted!.
During the early 60s, long before he was known for the roles of the Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera" and Frank Spencer in "Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em", he was best known in England for the Mod-style tough motorcycle riding, Byron in the BBC satirical series, "Not So Much A Programme, More a Way of Life".
E! Channel nominated him one of the Most Sexiest Men in the World in 1995.
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.
Enjoys a variety of music and different singers, ranging from Plácido Domingo to Robbie Williams.
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.
He has performed in almost all mediums of entertainment, including Radio, Television, Recordings, Films, Theater, Musicals, and even Opera. He also has dabbled in writing.
He has performed in radio, television, film, recordings, theater, and opera. He has also dabbled in writing, dancing, and has tried directing . He also has won numerous awards apart from the Oscar. Among his many awards are the Tony, Olivier, BAFTA, Drama Desk and many others.
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.