
Sir Richard Stilgoe, OBE, DL
Philanthropists' Council Member
Richard Stilgoe has spent fifty years as a performer and writer in all forms of the performing arts. On television he appeared on Nationwide, That’s Life and several series of his own. On stage he toured for many years with his one-man show and subsequently his two-man show with Peter Skellern.
He wrote lyrics for Cats, Starlight Express and The Phantom of the Opera, music and lyrics for Bodywork, Brilliant the Dinosaur, ‘Orpheus – the Mythical’ and the libretto for the community operas Road Rage and The Freedom Game. His broadcasting work has earned him the New York Radio Festival Gold Award, three Monaco Festival Prizes and the Prix Italia. In 1997 he founded the Orpheus Centre in Surrey, where young disabled people prepare for independent living through a series of performing arts courses. With his wife Annabel he administers the Alchemy Foundation, which supports fund-raisers, or Alchemists, in a variety of charities.
He owns and drives a JCB digger, and has five children and thirteen grandchildren. Richard was knighted for charitable service in the Jubilee honours list of 2012.