John Steiner

John Steiner (7 January 1941 – 31 July 2022) was an English actor born in Chester, Cheshire. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company before building a career that spanned stage, television, and film across multiple countries.

Steiner's Broadway appearance came in 1965, when he performed in The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, directed by Peter Brook. In that production he played the role of Monsieur Dupere, a credit he had originated with the RSC. He returned to the role a third time for the 1967 film adaptation of the same production.

His early screen work included a 1967 episode of The Saint titled The Death Game, in which he played a psychology student named Grey Wyler, as well as a role in the original Bedazzled (1967) alongside Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. In 1969 he appeared in the Spaghetti Western Tepepa and in White Fang, directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Franco Nero. He took the lead role of Leo in a 1979 television production of Noël Coward's Design for Living, and also starred in the 1971 television series Hine.

Steiner eventually relocated to Italy, where he became a prolific presence in Italian genre cinema. His credits there included police actioners such as Violent Rome, the western Mannaja, the war film The Last Hunter, the nazisploitation film Deported Women of the SS Special Section, the sci-fi adventure Yor, the Hunter from the Future, and horror films including Mario Bava's Shock, Dario Argento's Tenebrae, and Ruggero Deodato's Body Count. He appeared repeatedly in films by director Tinto Brass, including Salon Kitty, Caligula, Action, and Paprika. His work in Italian cinema continued steadily through the late 1980s.

As the Italian film industry contracted, Steiner retired from acting in 1991 and moved to California, where he worked as a real estate agent. He later participated in DVD supplementary materials for several of his films and gave interviews discussing his Italian career.

In his personal life, Steiner was bisexual. During the 1960s he was in a long-term relationship with director John Schlesinger, and he became the basis for the character Bob Elkin, played by Murray Head, in Schlesinger's semi-autobiographical film Sunday Bloody Sunday. He later married and is survived by his wife of more than thirty years. In addition to English, he spoke French, Italian, and German.

Steiner died on 31 July 2022, in a car crash in La Quinta, California, at the age of 81.