Robert Colin Stigwood was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario, best known for managing Cream, Andy Gibb and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, and film productions including the successful Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
21 Facts About Robert Stigwood
2.
Robert Stigwood was born in 1934 in Port Pirie, South Australia, the son of Gwendolyn and Gordon Robert Stigwood, an electrical engineer.
3.
Robert Stigwood was educated at Sacred Heart College in Adelaide.
4.
Robert Stigwood worked briefly for Hector Ross at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, Hampshire, before Ross left and the theatre closed.
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Robert Stigwood then met businessman Stephen Komlosy with whom he founded Robert Stigwood Associates Ltd, a small theatrical agency.
6.
Robert Stigwood signed the actor John Leyton who soon became a teenage heart-throb in 1960 thanks to his appearance in a TV drama based on Biggles.
7.
Leyton had ambitions to sing, but was rejected by the major record companies; so Robert Stigwood took him to the producer Joe Meek, who produced the singles "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Girl on the Floor Above".
8.
Some acts he promoted in the mid-60s lost Stigwood money, including UK tours by Chuck Berry and P J Proby, and he came close to bankruptcy during this period.
9.
Robert Stigwood moved his recording activities to Polydor Records, negotiating a much more advantageous deal than he had achieved with EMI.
10.
In 1967, at the suggestion of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Robert Stigwood merged his agency with Epstein's company NEMS.
11.
When Brian Epstein unexpectedly died in August 1967, Robert Stigwood was seen as a potential successor to the NEMS organisation, but The Beatles refused to work with him.
12.
Also during 1967, Robert Stigwood purchased a controlling interest in Associated London Scripts, a writers' agency co-founded by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes in 1954, in which many of Britain's best comedy and television scriptwriters had been involved.
13.
Robert Stigwood moved into film and TV production in the early 1970s.
14.
Robert Stigwood's first feature film was a hit screen adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar, made in association with its director, Norman Jewison.
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Robert Stigwood followed this with the film version of The Who's Tommy, which became one of the most successful films at the box office during its year of release.
16.
Robert Stigwood signed actor John Travolta to a million dollar three-picture contract in 1976.
17.
Robert Stigwood followed this with a hugely successful film adaptation of the stage rock'n'roll musical Grease, which co-starred Travolta and Australian singer Olivia Newton-John.
18.
Robert Stigwood insisted that additional songs be added to the soundtrack, including the theme tune penned by Barry Gibb and songs by fellow Australian songwriter-producer John Farrar.
19.
RSO records had success with soundtracks for Fame and The Empire Strikes Back before Robert Stigwood sold the label to Polygram.
20.
Robert Stigwood remained active during his later years, primarily in musical theatre, taking a role in stage revivals of Grease and a theatrical adaptation of Saturday Night Fever.
21.
Robert Stigwood died in London on 4 January 2016, aged 81.