Oliver! star Mark Lester on Michael Jackson and coming back to the stage for more
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Oliver! star Mark Lester on Michael Jackson and coming back to the stage for more
by Admin Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:35 pm
Oliver! star Mark Lester on Michael Jackson and coming back to the stage for more
By: Peter Robertson
October 24, 2013
AS he makes a rare stage appearance, the child star of Oliver! reveals his struggle to contact Michael Jackson's children to whom he is godparent and why he doesn't know if he's their real father
The acts at Sunday night's charity gala at Worthing's Pavilion Theatre included Isabelle Allen, described as "the rising star of Les Miserables" and former Olympic ice-skating champion Robin Cousins. But the most intriguing name on the bill was Mark Lester. He was performing in public for the first time in 33 years.
Lester's name might not be on everyone's lips today but he was once a child star recognised around the world for his title role in the film musical Oliver! Alongside him was his co-star from Oliver! actor Ron Moody, who played Fagin in the film. Together they performed the song from Lionel Bart's blockbuster Pick A Pocket Or Two.
It was a rare public appearance for Lester, 55, who now works as an osteopath in the clinic he runs in Gloucestershire.
At one stage it looked as if his life would be very different. Following the success of Oliver! he appeared to have a glittering future. After all the blue-eyed eight-year-old was a major contributor to the film's success which took £50million worldwide to become the seventh highest grossing movie of that year.
But while Lester enjoyed modest success as a film and television actor over the next decade his career started to unravel after his 18th birthday. While filming Oliver! his parents gave him pocket money of 25p a week but aged 18 he came into a fortune of £180,000 - around £1million in today's money. What happened next was not entirely unpredictable. He bought a Ferrari and a house in Belgravia, staged four-day parties for his hangers-on and spent thousands of pounds on cocaine and other class-A drugs.
By 20 he had frittered away his fortune and gave up acting at the age of 22. It was while he was performing his swansong in a play called The Murder Game at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing in 1980 that he was contacted by Michael Jackson.
Jack[son] was one of the biggest stars in the world following the success of his Off The Wall album but Jackson had been entranced by Lester's performance as Oliver and wanted to meet him. They were just six weeks apart in age and the king of pop and the actor-turned-osteopath went on to form an unlikely friendship. So close did they become that Jackson asked Lester to be godfather to his children Prince Michael, now 16, Paris, 15, and Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, 11.
However before the first of these children was born events had taken a bizarre turn, according to Lester. Impressed by Lester's fertility - he fathered three daughters between 1991-1995 with his first wife Jane, a radiographer - Jackson, who was desperate to have a family of his own, asked his friend to make a sperm donation.
Lester duly obliged with two visits to a Harley Street clinic in 1996 - the year before Prince Michael was born. Asked if he thinks he is the biological father of Jackson's children Lester said this week: "I haven't got a clue. And it doesn't really matter because Michael was the father as far as I'm concerned. He brought the children up from the day they were born so it's irrelevant really whether he was the biological father or not."
He adds: "He clearly isn't [the natural father] because he was black and the children are white and if you mix black and white you get mixed race, not white. So whoever was the biological father, whether it's me or any other people it could possibly have been, it doesn't make any difference because with Michael it was like taking a child the moment it was born and then raising it as your own."
By the time Blanket was born in 2002 Lester's own brood had grown to four with the addition of a son and the two families became almost inseparable, spending school holidays and weekends together.
They would often stay at an isolated cottage in the grounds of Cliveden, the country house hotel in Berkshire, and the Lesters travelled to the US to stay at Jackson's home.
Since Jackson's death in 2009 Lester has tried to contact the children via Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of Prince and Paris. "I got in touch with their mother," he said. "I spoke to her via one of her ex-boyfriends and basically she just told me to take a running jump really. They're all so scheming and it drives me bananas.
"I just want to say hello and remind Paris that my three daughters were very fond of her and Prince and Blanket and that they're there if she ever needs to have a chat. Nothing else.
"They're just all so wrapped up in schemes and things that they are always thinking the worst of everyone."
He has had no more luck with contacting the children through the Jackson family. "Unfortunately it's like talking to some sort of sect. They're all very closed. It's virtually impossible to get through. Poor Paris [who attempted suicide in June] has been sent off to some sort of boot camp in Utah from what I understand. Not very nice at all for her, poor kid.
"Also from what I understand through other sources she was kicking off because she wanted to pursue acting and the grandmother said, 'No, you've got to stay at school', which I think is the right thing. She should stay at school. She has made this attempt on her life, which is more of a cry for help than an attention-seeking exercise." Lester attributes the Jackson family's determination to block his access to the children to the fact that Jackson never saw his family in his later years and as a result they were unaware that he was the children's godfather.
As for taking a paternity test to establish whether he is their biological father he replies: "I'm not interested in proving whether I am or not. I don't think it's relevant." His mind is now on a possible UK tour next year of An Audience With-style show that he has discussed with Ron Moody.
"Ron is great and exactly as I remember him from almost 50 years ago. We've been in touch on and off and had various reunions. The film's cast has always been like a big family.
"Ron is an amazing bloke. His youngest child is 14 and Ron's nearly 90, which says a lot. So I'm not nervous about doing this because Ron's here and he will guide me through it. We're like a double act."
Mark Lester appeared in Shine Bright Like A Diamond, a one-off gala show which raised funds for St Barnabas House Hospice in Worthing, West Sussex
Asked to name other potential candidates Lester says: "I don't know. They were suggesting Macaulay Culkin [the child star of Home Alone] but I think that's unlikely. There's his dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein. Sir Paul McCartney was even suggested and possibly Uri Geller, I don't know."
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By: Peter Robertson
October 24, 2013
AS he makes a rare stage appearance, the child star of Oliver! reveals his struggle to contact Michael Jackson's children to whom he is godparent and why he doesn't know if he's their real father
The acts at Sunday night's charity gala at Worthing's Pavilion Theatre included Isabelle Allen, described as "the rising star of Les Miserables" and former Olympic ice-skating champion Robin Cousins. But the most intriguing name on the bill was Mark Lester. He was performing in public for the first time in 33 years.
Lester's name might not be on everyone's lips today but he was once a child star recognised around the world for his title role in the film musical Oliver! Alongside him was his co-star from Oliver! actor Ron Moody, who played Fagin in the film. Together they performed the song from Lionel Bart's blockbuster Pick A Pocket Or Two.
It was a rare public appearance for Lester, 55, who now works as an osteopath in the clinic he runs in Gloucestershire.
At one stage it looked as if his life would be very different. Following the success of Oliver! he appeared to have a glittering future. After all the blue-eyed eight-year-old was a major contributor to the film's success which took £50million worldwide to become the seventh highest grossing movie of that year.
But while Lester enjoyed modest success as a film and television actor over the next decade his career started to unravel after his 18th birthday. While filming Oliver! his parents gave him pocket money of 25p a week but aged 18 he came into a fortune of £180,000 - around £1million in today's money. What happened next was not entirely unpredictable. He bought a Ferrari and a house in Belgravia, staged four-day parties for his hangers-on and spent thousands of pounds on cocaine and other class-A drugs.
By 20 he had frittered away his fortune and gave up acting at the age of 22. It was while he was performing his swansong in a play called The Murder Game at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing in 1980 that he was contacted by Michael Jackson.
Jack[son] was one of the biggest stars in the world following the success of his Off The Wall album but Jackson had been entranced by Lester's performance as Oliver and wanted to meet him. They were just six weeks apart in age and the king of pop and the actor-turned-osteopath went on to form an unlikely friendship. So close did they become that Jackson asked Lester to be godfather to his children Prince Michael, now 16, Paris, 15, and Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, 11.
However before the first of these children was born events had taken a bizarre turn, according to Lester. Impressed by Lester's fertility - he fathered three daughters between 1991-1995 with his first wife Jane, a radiographer - Jackson, who was desperate to have a family of his own, asked his friend to make a sperm donation.
Lester duly obliged with two visits to a Harley Street clinic in 1996 - the year before Prince Michael was born. Asked if he thinks he is the biological father of Jackson's children Lester said this week: "I haven't got a clue. And it doesn't really matter because Michael was the father as far as I'm concerned. He brought the children up from the day they were born so it's irrelevant really whether he was the biological father or not."
He adds: "He clearly isn't [the natural father] because he was black and the children are white and if you mix black and white you get mixed race, not white. So whoever was the biological father, whether it's me or any other people it could possibly have been, it doesn't make any difference because with Michael it was like taking a child the moment it was born and then raising it as your own."
By the time Blanket was born in 2002 Lester's own brood had grown to four with the addition of a son and the two families became almost inseparable, spending school holidays and weekends together.
They would often stay at an isolated cottage in the grounds of Cliveden, the country house hotel in Berkshire, and the Lesters travelled to the US to stay at Jackson's home.
Since Jackson's death in 2009 Lester has tried to contact the children via Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, the mother of Prince and Paris. "I got in touch with their mother," he said. "I spoke to her via one of her ex-boyfriends and basically she just told me to take a running jump really. They're all so scheming and it drives me bananas.
"I just want to say hello and remind Paris that my three daughters were very fond of her and Prince and Blanket and that they're there if she ever needs to have a chat. Nothing else.
"They're just all so wrapped up in schemes and things that they are always thinking the worst of everyone."
He has had no more luck with contacting the children through the Jackson family. "Unfortunately it's like talking to some sort of sect. They're all very closed. It's virtually impossible to get through. Poor Paris [who attempted suicide in June] has been sent off to some sort of boot camp in Utah from what I understand. Not very nice at all for her, poor kid.
"Also from what I understand through other sources she was kicking off because she wanted to pursue acting and the grandmother said, 'No, you've got to stay at school', which I think is the right thing. She should stay at school. She has made this attempt on her life, which is more of a cry for help than an attention-seeking exercise." Lester attributes the Jackson family's determination to block his access to the children to the fact that Jackson never saw his family in his later years and as a result they were unaware that he was the children's godfather.
As for taking a paternity test to establish whether he is their biological father he replies: "I'm not interested in proving whether I am or not. I don't think it's relevant." His mind is now on a possible UK tour next year of An Audience With-style show that he has discussed with Ron Moody.
"Ron is great and exactly as I remember him from almost 50 years ago. We've been in touch on and off and had various reunions. The film's cast has always been like a big family.
"Ron is an amazing bloke. His youngest child is 14 and Ron's nearly 90, which says a lot. So I'm not nervous about doing this because Ron's here and he will guide me through it. We're like a double act."
Mark Lester appeared in Shine Bright Like A Diamond, a one-off gala show which raised funds for St Barnabas House Hospice in Worthing, West Sussex
Asked to name other potential candidates Lester says: "I don't know. They were suggesting Macaulay Culkin [the child star of Home Alone] but I think that's unlikely. There's his dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein. Sir Paul McCartney was even suggested and possibly Uri Geller, I don't know."
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Re: Oliver! star Mark Lester on Michael Jackson and coming back to the stage for more
by Capricious Anomaly Thu Oct 24, 2013 5:18 pm
This seems like the exact opposite of what Lester said before. He claimed to be the bio-dad and now he says he does not think it is relevant? He IS still insulting The Jacksons and Deb Rowe though true to form! smh
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Age : 57
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