Harold Lewis Fielding (4 December 1916 - 27 September 2003) was an English

theatre producer Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicat ...

. Fielding was one of Britain's foremost theatrical producers who produced several musicals, including ''

Mame MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to emulate the hardware of arcade games, video game consoles, old computers and other systems in software on modern personal computers and ...

'', '' Charlie Girl'', '' Half a Sixpence'', ''

Show Boat ''Show Boat'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 Show Boat (novel), novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the per ...

'', '' Scarlett'', '' Barnum'', ''

Sweet Charity ''Sweet Charity'' is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon, based on the screenplay for the 1957 Italian film '' Nights of Cabiria''. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse sta ...

'', '' The Biograph Girl'', and ''Ziegfeld''. He also produced "Music for the Millions", a touring variety show. The son of a stockbroker, Fielding was born in Woking, Surrey, England, and educated privately. As a child prodigy, he studied violin with Josef Szigeti. He also handled

Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele recor ...

's early career, and commissioned ''Half a Sixpence'' for him. His office was Fielding House, 53-54 Haymarket, London. He was interviewed by

Sue Lawley Susan Lawley (born 14 July 1946) is an English retired television and radio broadcaster. Her main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs. From 1988 to 2006, Lawley was the presenter of ''Desert Island Discs'' on BBC ...

on ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

'' on BBC Radio 4 on 17 June 1990. In 1996, Fielding was awarded a Gold Badge from BASCA in recognition of his special contribution to Britain's entertainment industry. Fielding married Maisie Joyce Skivens in 1955, and was widowed in 1985. They had no children. He suffered a series of

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

s in 1998, and retired to a private nursing home in

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

, where he died.''WhatsonStage'' obituary
/ref>

References

External links

''The Times'' obituary

*Th
Collection relating to Harold Fielding's production of Cinderella
is held by the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

Theatre and Performance Department. 1916 births 2003 deaths English theatre managers and producers British impresarios 20th-century English businesspeople {{theat-bio-stub