Frith Banbury

Frith Banbury MBE (born May 4, 1912 in Plymouth , † May 14, 2008 in London ) was a British actor and theater and opera director.

Life

Frith Banbury was born in Plymouth , Devon . His parents were Rear Admiral Frederick Arthur Frith Banbury and his wife Winifred Fink. Banbury was a student at Stowe School, a prestigious boarding school that only accepted boys at the time. After graduating from high school, Banbury went to Hertford College , Oxford . Although his father was an officer, Banbury declined to join the British Officer Training Corps , which trains students to become reserve officers in parallel with their studies. He was later a conscientious objector and served in the Friends' Ambulance Unit , a voluntary medical service that was mainly organized by Quakers and, among other things, provided emergency services during the Second World War.

Banbury did not graduate, but became a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , where he studied together with Joan Littlewood , Rachel Kempson , Robert Morley and Peter Bull . Banbury had his first stage appearance on June 15, 1933 for the first time in a play by Sholem Aleichem that was given at the Shaftesbury Theater . He was active as a stage actor in both the 1930s and 1940s, playing at the Ambassadors Theater , Theater Royal Haymarket , Gate Theater , Apollo Theater and the Q Theater , among others .

After the end of World War II, he was invited by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to direct plays. His first significant directorial work was Dark Summer , a play written by the pacifist Wynyard Browne . He had other early successes with the film adaptation of The Holly and the Ivy (1952), Waters of the Moon and the play The Deep Blue Sea . This drama was also one of three plays directed by Banbury on Broadway . The other two plays are Flowering Cherry and The Right Honorable Gentleman .

Banbury has also directed at the Old Vic Theater , the London Lyric Theater and staged productions at the Edinburgh Festival , the Chichester Festival Theater and the Wexford Festival Opera . He was also active as a director in Paris , Dublin , South Africa, Kenya and Australia.

Banbury died on May 14, 2008 at the age of 96.

Filmography

As an actor

1938: Goodness, How Sad! (early TV movie)
1939: Look Here! (Short film)
1943: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp)
1948: Bond Street
1949: The History of Mr. Polly
1949: The Huggetts Abroad

As a director

1958: Theater Night (TV series, two episodes)

Web links

Frith Banbury in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Single receipts

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ian Herbert (Ed.): Who's Who in the Theater , Volume 1, 1981, ISSN 0083-9833 , p. 40 - Entry for Frith Banbury.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Billington, Michael: Frith Banbury , The Guardian. May 16, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
^ ^A ^b Frith Banbury, Director whose 1950s reign at the Haymarket Theater championed writers such as Robert Bolt and Rodney Ackland , The Times . May 16, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2014.

personal data
SURNAME	Banbury, Frith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH	May 4, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH	Plymouth , Devon , England
DATE OF DEATH	May 14, 2008
Place of death	London

[who-1] Ian Herbert (Ed.): Who's Who in the Theater , Volume 1, 1981, ISSN 0083-9833 , p. 40 - Entry for Frith Banbury.

[guardian-2] Billington, Michael: Frith Banbury , The Guardian. May 16, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2014.

[times-3] A ^b Frith Banbury, Director whose 1950s reign at the Haymarket Theater championed writers such as Robert Bolt and Rodney Ackland , The Times . May 16, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2014.