President Donald Trump has revealed this year’s Kennedy Center honorees, and the list includes a British actor, comedian and singer from decades ago.
Trump announced Michael Crawford – known for playing the hapless Frank Spencer in a 1970s sitcom – as among the honorees in the ‘truly exceptional class’ that excludes ‘wokesters’.
‘I think he’s one of the greatest talents I’ve ever seen,’ said Trump of Crawford, 83, on Wednesday.
‘I’ll say among the greatest artists in the world are the Broadway-London actors… all they want to do is be on the live stage.
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‘They are the most talented people, and this man might be the most of all, Michael Crawford is being honoured.’
The actor whose birth name is Michael Patrick Smith is best known for his role in the sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
He was also the lead in the original Tony Award-winning Phantom of the Opera musical that opened on Broadway in 1988.
Trump said he was ‘there’ to watch Crawford’s Broadway debut in Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer in 1967. The president said he ‘had a voice that was unbelievable’.
‘One of the greatest ever… you don’t see them like that very often,’ Trump said.
The other four honorees are country music star George Strait, actor Sylvester Stallone, disco-era singer Gloria Gaynor and the American rock band Kiss.
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