Michael Pennington

Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (7 June 1943 – 7 May 2026) was an English actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its joint artistic director until 1992. He wrote ten books, directed in the UK and across the world, and was an honorary associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Over a 60-year stage career he played a host of Shakespeare's title roles and other leading characters, while on screen he appeared as Laertes in Hamlet (1969), Moff Jerjerrod in Return of the Jedi (1983), and Michael Foot in The Iron Lady (2011).

Background Pennington was born in Cambridge, East Anglia, the son of Vivian Maynard Cecil Pennington (died 1984) and Euphemia Willock, née Fyfe (died 1987), and grew up in London. He was educated at Marlborough College, became a member of the National Youth Theatre and then read English at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Theatre work Pennington joined the Royal Shakespeare Company on graduation and remained in a junior capacity from 1964 to 1966, playing among other things Fortinbras in David Warner's 1965 Hamlet. He then left the company for eight years and worked in London, both on the stage (in John Mortimer's The Judge, Christopher Hampton's Savages and Tony Richardson's production of Hamlet with Nicol Williamson), and on television in many single dramas. He returned to the RSC in 1974 to play Angelo in Measure for Measure, beginning a relationship with the company as a leading actor which culminated in his own performance of Hamlet in 1980–81: he also played Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, Edgar in King Lear, and in new work by David Rudkin, David Edgar and Howard Brenton and classic works by Sean O'Casey, Euripides and William Congreve. He then left the company for a further eight years before appearing in Stephen Poliakoff's Playing with Trains, and ten years after that in the title role of Timon of Athens. In the meanwhile he appeared at the National Theatre in 1984 in Tolstoy's Strider, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award, in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd, and also premiered his solo show Anton Chekhov which he subsequently toured internationally. He also played Raskolnikov in Yuri Lyubimov's adaptation of Crime and Punishment, and Henry in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing in London's West End and played the title role in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex on BBC TV in 1985.

In 1986, Pennington and director Michael Bogdanov together founded the English Shakespeare Company. As joint artistic director, he starred in the company's inaugural productions of The Henrys and, in 1987, the seven-play history cycle of The Wars of the Roses, which toured worldwide and was televised. Pennington played such parts as Richard II, Prince Hal/Henry V and Jack Cade (Olivier Award Nomination). In subsequent seasons with the ESC, he played Leontes in The Winter's Tale and the title roles in Macbeth and Coriolanus (Olivier Award Nomination) and directed Twelfth Night, which he then also directed for the Haiyuza Theatre Company in Tokyo and for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

From the 1970s, he appeared frequently with Judi Dench and also with her husband Michael Williams. The third time he played opposite Dench was in Peter Shaffer's play The Gift of the Gorgon, in 1992, in which they appeared as a married couple. His other West End work in the 1990s included Archie Rice in The Entertainer, Claudius and the Ghost in Hamlet, Major Arnold in Taking Sides (Ronald Harwood), Oscar Wilde in Gross Indecency, Sir John Brute in Farquhar's The Provok'd Wife, Henry Trebell in Harley Granville Barker's Waste, Trigorin in The Seagull, and the title role in Molière's The Misanthrope. In the first Harold Pinter Festival in Dublin he played in Pinter's Old Times and One for the Road. In 1998, he worked with Sir Peter Hall and other actors to run a workshop at the National Theatre Studio, which received considerable plaudits.

His stage work in the 2000s included Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw (National tour), the title role in The Guardsman (West End), David Mamet's The Shawl (Crucible Theatre Sheffield), Walter Burns in The Front Page, (Chichester Festival Theatre), the title roles in Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman and Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III, and Dr Dorn in Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Peter Stein for the Edinburgh Festival) In 2003 he directed A Midsummer Night's Dream in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and The Hamlet Project for the National Theatre in Bucharest. In 2005 he appeared in David Greig's The Cosmonaut's Last Message... (Donmar Warehouse); Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre), and in the title role in Nathan the Wise (Hampstead Theatre).

He also played a sequence of real-life characters such as Sidney Cockerell in The Best of Friends (Hampstead Theatre 2006), 2007 : Robert Maxwell in The Bargain by Ian Curteis (2007), Charles Dickens in Little Nell by Simon Gray (2007), Wilhelm Furtwangler in Pinter's Taking Sides and Richard Strauss in Collaboration by Ronald Harwood (Chichester and West End, 2008–09). He had previously played the other central role in Taking Sides in the West End, with Pinter directing.

In 2006, he premièred his second one-man show, this one on Shakespeare, Sweet William, and in 2009 he worked with Peter Brook for the first time in Love is My Sin for a European tour and in New York.

In 2010, he returned to Chichester to play the title role in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and the following year Dr Fabio in The Syndicate by Eduardo de Filippo opposite Ian McKellen. In 2012 he played his fifth consecutive Chichester season as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra opposite Kim Cattrall. Notable performances since then have been as Edgar in Strindberg's The Dance of Death, adapted by Howard Brenton, at the Gate Theatre, as John of Gaunt in Richard II (RSC), and as Anthony Blunt in Alan Bennett's Single Spies, at the Rose Theatre Kingston. In 2014 he performed the title role in King Lear for Theatre for a New Audience in New York, before undertaking a further tour of his solo Shakespeare show Sweet William (Oregon, Tel Aviv, France). He recorded the part of Euripides in Macedonia by David Rudkin for Radio 3, and in 2015 planned to take his solo show Anton Chekhov to Moscow. In 2015 he performed Sweet William in Argentina and Uruguay at the Festival Shakespeare Buenos Aires and Festival Shakespeare Uruguay.

Other work In 1983, Pennington appeared as Moff Jerjerrod in the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi alongside fellow Old Vic alumnus James Earl Jones. He also played Michael Foot in The Iron Lady (2011) with Meryl Streep. His notable TV appearances included the title roles in Oedipus Rex (1986) and the 1987 made-for-television film The Return of Sherlock Holmes. He also played Holmes's nemesis, Professor Moriarty, in two BBC Radio dramatisations of the Holmes short stories "The Final Problem" in 1992 and "The Empty House" which combines biographical material about the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov with an account of the writing of his highly successful one-man show about Chekhov, the full text of which is included. He also wrote three books about individual Shakespeare plays, Sweet William – Twenty Thousand Hours with Shakespeare, as well as Let Me Play the Lion Too – How to Be an Actor for Faber and Faber. His solo show Sweet William is available as a DVD. Pennington also worked as a narrator on many TV documentaries.

In April 2004, he became the second actor, after Harley Granville-Barker in 1925, to deliver the British Academy's annual Shakespeare lecture. The lecture was entitled Barnadine's Straw: The Devil in Shakespeare's Detail.

Personal life and death In 1964, Pennington married actress Katharine Barker, with whom he had a son before they divorced in 1967. Beginning in 1978, when they appeared together in Love's Labour's Lost, he shared a flat with actress Jane Lapotaire in St John's Wood, London, though at the time Lapotaire said they were "just friends".

Pennington died at Denville Hall, London, on 7 May 2026, at the age of 82. His long-term partner, arts administrator Prue Skene, pre-deceased him in 2025.

Selected stage credits Richard II (Earl of Salisbury), National Youth Theatre, Apollo Theatre, London, 9–19 and 30 August – 2 September 1961 Henry IV, Part 2 (Earl of Warwick), National Youth Theatre, Apollo Theatre, London, 22–29 August 1961 Hamlet (title role), ADC Theatre, Cambridge, February 1964 Love's Labour's Lost (Dumaine and understudying Berowne), Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1965 Hamlet (Fortinbras), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1965 The Judge by John Mortimer, Theatre Royal, Brighton, and Cambridge Theatre, London, 1967 Hamlet (Laertes), Round House, London, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York, and Huntington Hartford Theatre, Los Angeles, 1969 Three Sisters (Andrei), Cambridge Arts Theatre, 1971 Trelawny of the Wells (Ferdinand Gadd), Cambridge Arts Theatre, 1971 Savages by Christopher Hampton (Crawshaw), Royal Court Theatre and Comedy Theatre, London, 1973 Measure for Measure (Angelo), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974 The Tempest (Ferdinand), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974 Afore Night Come (Johnny Hobnails), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1974 Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), RSC, Straford-upon-Avon, 1976, and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977 Troilus and Cressida (Hector), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976, and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977 King Lear (Edgar), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976, and Aldwych Theatre London, 1977 Destiny by David Edgar (Major Rolfe), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976, and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1977 The Way of the World (Mirabell), RSC, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1978 Measure for Measure (the Duke), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1978, and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1979 Love's Labour's Lost (Berowne), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1978, and Aldwych Theatre, London, Hippolytus (title role), RSC, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1978, and The Warehouse, London, 1979 The White Guard (Shervinsky), RSC, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1979 The Shadow of a Gunman (Donal Davoren), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1980, and The Warehouse, London, 1981 Hamlet (title role), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1980, Theatre Royal, Newcastle, 1981, and Aldwych Theatre, London, 1981 Crime and Punishment (Raskolnikov), directed by Yuri Lyubimov, Lyric Hammersmith, London, 1983 Strider, The Story of a Horse by Mark Rozovsky based on Kholstomer by Leo Tolstoy (title role), Cottesloe Theatre, London, 1984 Venice Preserv'd (Jaffier), Lyttelton at the Royal National Theatre, London, 1984 Anton Chekhov, his one-man-play about Anton Chekhov (Anton Chekhov), Cottesloe Theatre, London, 1984 Henry IV Parts One and Two, (Prince Hal), English Shakespeare Company, 1986–1989 Henry V (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1986–1989 Richard II (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1987–1989 The Winter's Tale (Leontes), English Shakespeare Company, 1990–1991 Coriolanus (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1990–1991 Macbeth (title role), English Shakespeare Company, 1991–1992 The Gift of the Gorgon by Peter Shaffer (Edward Damson), West End, 1992 The Entertainer (Archie Rice), Hampstead Theatre, 1996 Waste (Henry Trebell), directed by Peter Hall, Old Vic, London, 1997 The Seagull (Trigorin), directed by Peter Hall, Old Vic, London, 1997 The Provoked Wife (Sir John Brute), directed by Lindsay Posner, Old Vic, London, 1997 The Misanthrope (title role), directed by Peter Hall, Piccadilly Theatre, London, 1998 Filumena (Domenico), directed by Peter Hall, Piccadilly Theatre, London, 1998 Gross Indecency (Oscar Wilde), directed by Moises Kaufman, Gielgud Theatre, London, 1999 Timon of Athens (title role), directed by Gregory Doran, RSC, Stratford and London, 1999–2000 John Gabriel Borkman (title role), English Touring Theatre, 2003 The Madness of George III (title role) West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, 2003 The Seagull (Dr Dorn), directed by Peter Stein, Edinburgh Festival, 2003 Sweet William (One man show about Shakespeare) London and international touring, 2007 on Collaboration by Ronald Harwood (Richard Strauss), Duchess Theatre, London, 2009 "Taking Sides" by Ronald Harwood (Major Steve Arnold), Duchess Theatre, London, 2009 The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen, (title role), Chichester Festival Theatre, 2010 Love Is My Sin directed by Peter Brook, international tour and Broadway, 2010 The Syndicate (Dr Fabio) by Eduardo di Filippo, adapted by Mike Poulton, directed by Sean Mathias, Chichester Festival Theatre, 2011 Judgement Day by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Mike Poulton, directed by James Dacre, The Print Room, 2011 Antony and Cleopatra (Antony), directed by Janet Suzman, Chichester Festival Theatre, 2012 King Lear (title role), directed by Arin Arbus, Theatre for a New Audience at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 2013 King Lear (title role), directed by Michael Webster, national tour, 2016

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 1969 Hamlet Laertes With Nicol Williamson in the title role 1983 Return of the Jedi Moff Jerjerrod 1997 The Empire Strikes Back Moff Jerjerrod Archive footage; Special Edition re-release 2005 Fragile Marcus 2011 The Iron Lady Michael Foot With Meryl Streep in the title role

Television

Radio

Books Rossya: A Journey through Siberia (1977) Txèkhov – Un monòleg sobre la vida d'Anton Txèkhov (1989) (Catalan translation of Anton Chekhov) The English Shakespeare Company – The Story of the Wars of the Roses (with Michael Bogdanov) (1990) Hamlet: A User's Guide (1996) Twelfth Night: A User's Guide (2000) Are You There, Crocodile? Inventing Anton Chekhov (2003) A Pocket Guide to Ibsen, Chekhov and Strindberg (2004) A Midsummer Night's Dream: A User's Guide (2005) Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Hours with Shakespeare (2012) Let Me Play the Lion Too – How to Be an Actor (2015) King Lear in Brooklyn (2016)