Cardinal Pirelli in a revival of Sandy Wilson's Valmouth at the Chichester Festival. Irving Wardle wrote in The Times, "It is not a large part, but Helpmann's hooded smiles and baleful oeuillades, his capacity to express elegant corruption to his beringed finger-tips, lodge one imperishable image." In 1983 Helpmann directed Gounod's opera Roméo et Juliette in Sydney, and later in the year appeared there as the elderly Bosie in Justin Fleming's play about Oscar Wilde, The Cobra, with Mark Lee as Bosie's young self. In 1984, together with Googie Withers and John McCallum, he toured in Ted Willis's play Stardust, and joined his sister Sheila to record two episodes of the Australian soap opera A Country Practice, which were shown in 1985. Early in that year he was in the US directing a revival of the operetta The Mery Widow for the San Diego Opera. In June, at the Sydney Opera House, he directed Joan Sutherland in Bellini's I Puritani. His last stage appearances were as the Red King in Checkmate, with the Australian Ballet, in Melbourne and Sydney in May 1986. Helpmann died of emphysema in Sydney on 28 September 1986. He was given the rare tribute of a state funeral, held on 2 October at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. Tributes were paid in both Houses of the Parliament of Australia. In the Senate all senators present stood in silence. This was noted as a rarity, and it was put on record that "it is only in exceptional circumstances that motions of condolence are moved for distinguished Australians who have not sat in the Parliament". Senator Stan Collard said: He always regarded himself as an Australian, although much of his life was spent away from these shores ... His love of the theatre and his ability to use it as a medium of communication and expression knew no bounds. He put this country on the map in the cultural arena.... He was always looking for new challenges and was never content to rely on past successes.... He was one of our great ambassadors. In the House of Representatives the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, said, "No one should underestimate Sir Robert Helpmann's role in the development of the growing maturity of Australia's art and culture. ... He demonstrated to the world the diversity of this nation's talents and capabilities." In London a memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent