Glen Byam Shaw

Glencairn Alexander "Glen" Byam Shaw, (13 December 1904 – 29 April 1986) was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later.

In the 1920s and 1930s Byam Shaw was a successful actor, both in romantic leads and in character parts. He worked frequently with his old friend John Gielgud. After working as co-director with Gielgud at the end of the 1930s, he preferred to direct rather than act. He served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and then took leading directorial posts at the Old Vic, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Sadler's Wells (later known as the English National Opera).

Life and career

Early years Byam Shaw was born in London, the youngest of five siblings (four sons and one daughter) born to artist John Byam Liston Shaw and his wife, Caroline Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott (1870–1959), also an artist. He was educated at Westminster School, where his contemporaries included his elder brother, James Byam Shaw, later a well-known art historian, and John Gielgud, who became a lifelong friend and professional colleague.

Byam Shaw's first appearance was at Torquay in the west of England, in C. K. Munro's comedy At Mrs. Beam's. In 1925 he made his London debut, playing Yasha in J.B. Fagan's production of The Cherry Orchard, in a cast that included Alan Napier as Gaiev, O.B. Clarence as Firs and Gielgud as the young student Trofimov. Over the next few years Byam Shaw appeared in three more plays by Chekhov, and Ibsen. He made his New York debut in November 1927 as Pelham Humphrey in And So To Bed.

Actress Constance Collier was impressed by Byam Shaw and used her influence to gain him roles. Among those to whom she introduced him was Ivor Novello, then a leading figure in London theatre. She directed them both in the play Down Hill in 1926. This drew him into contact with the poet Siegfried Sassoon, a friend of Collier; he and Byam Shaw became close. Their friendship lasted for the rest of Sassoon's life, although they ceased to be partners quite quickly; Sassoon became involved with Stephen Tennant and Byam Shaw fell in love with actress Angela Baddeley. They married in 1929. The marriage, which lasted until her death in 1976, was, Denison writes, "a supremely happy one, both domestically and professionally"; the couple had a son and a daughter. In 1933, Byam Shaw took over from Gielgud as Richard II in the long-running play Richard of Bordeaux by 'Gordon Daviot' (Josephine Tey); the following year he played Darnley in another historical play by the same author, Queen of Scots, opposite Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies and Laurence Olivier, directed by Gielgud.

Byam Shaw continued to work with Gielgud, playing Laertes to his Hamlet in 1934, and Benvolio in the celebrated 1935 New Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet, Edith Evans as the Nurse and Gielgud and Olivier alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio. Byam Shaw concluded his acting career in the late 1930s in roles including Darcy in a dramatisation of Pride and Prejudice, character parts in The Merchant of Venice and Richard II, and Sir Benjamin Backbite in The School for Scandal. After appearing in Michel Saint-Denis's short season at the Phoenix Theatre in 1938, his final role was Horatio to Gielgud's Hamlet, both in London and at Elsinore Castle. He served in Burma from 1942 and was wounded. He ended his military service in 1945 as a major, making training films in India.

Old Vic and Stratford Between 1947 and 1951 Byam Shaw was the director of the Old Vic Theatre School, part of the Old Vic Theatre run by Michel Saint-Denis which also included the Young Vic run by George Devine. Denison writes "Despite much success in all fields the three partners fell foul of the Vic governors and of the theatre's top-heavy and largely hostile administration". The same board had earlier dismissed Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier as heads of the Old Vic company, and now lost another leading team when Saint-Denis, Devine and Byan Shaw resigned in 1951.

Byam Shaw's most celebrated opera productions were in collaboration with the conductor Reginald Goodall, first The Mastersingers, the company's last major production at Sadler's Wells Theatre, and, after its move to the London Coliseum in 1968, the four operas of Wagner's Ring cycle, in which Byam Shaw's co-director was his former assistant John Blatchley. Byam Shaw's last collaboration with Goodall was Tristan and Isolde in 1981. He received an honorary DLitt from the University of Birmingham in 1959.

Death Glen Byam Shaw died in Goring-on-Thames at the age of 81, survived by his children and extended family.