At the height of his success, in the 1970s, Robert Stigwood, who has died aged 81, was the entertainment industry’s most powerful tycoon. He produced West End and Broadway musicals that were huge hits; he turned aspiring teenage musicians such as Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees into multi-million-selling superstars; and he produced a series of films that included Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978). Stigwood owned the record label that issued his artists’ albums and film soundtracks, and he also controlled publishing rights – not since Hollywood’s golden days had so much power and wealth been concentrated in the hands of one mogul.
Son of Robert, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Gwendolyn (nee Burrows), Stigwood was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and educated at the Sacred Heart College in the city. He worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency and then, aged 21, travelled to Britain via Asia in what he would later call the reverse direction of the hippy trail.
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