Alan Howard

Alan Howard, born Alan MacKenzie Howard on 5 August 1937 in Croydon, Surrey, was an English actor who died on 14 February 2015. He came from a theatrical family: his father was actor Arthur Howard, his uncle was film star Leslie Howard, and his aunt was casting director Irene Howard. On his mother's side he was a great-nephew of actress Fay Compton and novelist Sir Compton Mackenzie. Howard was educated at Ardingly College, an independent school in Ardingly, West Sussex.

Howard made his first stage appearance in April 1958 at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, as a footman in Half In Earnest, remaining with the company until 1960. Among his Belgrade roles was Frankie Bryant in Arnold Wesker's Roots in June 1959, a production that transferred first to the Royal Court Theatre and then to the Duke of York's Theatre in July 1959, marking his West End debut. He continued with the Wesker Trilogy, playing Dave Simmonds in I'm Talking About Jerusalem at the Belgrade in April 1960 and Monty Blatt in Chicken Soup with Barley at the Royal Court in June and July 1960. In January 1961 he played Kenny Baird in A Loss of Roses at the Pembroke Theatre in Croydon, followed by a return to the Royal Court as de Piraquo in Tony Richardson's production of The Changeling. The inaugural season of the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1962 brought him the roles of the Duke of Ferrara in The Chances and Nearchus in The Broken Heart. In April 1963 he played Loveless in Virtue in Danger at the Mermaid Theatre, transferring to the Strand Theatre in June 1963, and later that year appeared as Fotheringham in Afternoon Men at the New Arts Theatre. A 1964 international tour of South America and Europe, staged by Wendy Toye and starring Ralph Richardson, saw Howard play both Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1965 he appeared as Simon Challoner in A Heritage and Its History at the Phoenix Theatre and ended the year at the Nottingham Playhouse as Angelo in Measure for Measure and Bolingbroke in Richard II, alongside Judi Dench and Edward Woodward.

Howard joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1966, beginning an association with the RSC that lasted until 1983. His early RSC roles included Orsino in Twelfth Night, Burgundy in Henry V, and Lussurioso in The Revenger's Tragedy. Over the following years he took on a wide range of major parts, among them Edgar in King Lear, Achilles in Troilus and Cressida, and Benedick opposite Janet Suzman's Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing in 1968. In 1970 he played Mephistophilis in Doctor Faustus, the title role in Hamlet, and the dual role of Theseus and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. That production brought him to New York in January 1971 for his Broadway debut at the Billy Rose Theatre, and he subsequently toured the role through Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, Japan, and Australia from August 1972 to August 1973. Other notable RSC work included the title role in Henry V and Prince Hal in both parts of Henry IV in 1975, the title roles in all three parts of Henry VI and Coriolanus in 1977, Mark Antony in Antony and Cleopatra in 1978, and the title roles in Richard II and Richard III in 1980.

Howard's Broadway credits span 1971 to 1982. In addition to A Midsummer Night's Dream, he starred as Halder in Good by C.P. Taylor, with music by George Fenton. The production originated at the RSC Donmar Warehouse in September 1981, moved to the Aldwych in April 1982, and transferred to the Booth Theatre in New York in October 1982, where it ran for 141 performances.

Following his departure from the RSC, Howard continued to work extensively in British theatre. He played Nikolai Pesiakoff in Stephen Poliakoff's Breaking the Silence at the Mermaid Theatre from May to November 1985 and appeared as Johan in Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage at Chichester and the Wyndham's Theatre in November 1990. Between 1992 and 2000 he performed leading roles at the Royal National Theatre, including Henry Higgins in Pygmalion with Frances Barber in April 1992, the title role in Macbeth with Anastasia Hille in April 1993, and the title role in The Oedipus Plays at the Athens Festival at Epidaurus and the National Theatre of Greece in September 1996. He played Vladimir in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Old Vic in June 1997 and the title role in King Lear, with Victoria Hamilton as Cordelia, at the Old Vic in September 1997. Later stage work included Teiresias in a production of Sophocles' Oedipus directed by Jonathan Kent at the National Theatre's Olivier auditorium from October 2008, co-starring Ralph Fiennes and Clare Higgins, and Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal directed by Deborah Warner at the Barbican.