PETER HALL

(22 November 1930 - 11 September 2017)

Sir Peter Hall, who has died from dementia aged 86, was chiefly known as a man of the theatre. He introduced Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to the UK and went on to found the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and at London’s Aldwych Theatre. He eventually ran the National Theatre, taking over from Laurence Olivier, and also became an opera director, running Glyndebourne Festival Opera for seven years. He also found time to work in film and on television where he directed many Shakespeare productions. His first film was Work Is a Four-Letter Word (1968) starring David Warner and Cilla Black, then A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Warner, Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren, and Three Into Two Won’t Go, with Rod Steiger. In the 1970s Hall directed Perfect Friday, a bank heist movie with Ursula Andress, Stanley Baker and Warner again. Pinter’s The Homecoming was made for American television but released theatrically in the UK, after which Hall mostly worked on TV productions. His last cinema film was Never Talk to Strangers (1995) with Rebecca De Mornay and Antonio Banderas. His greatest achievement on film was Akenfield (1974), an adaptation of Ronald Blythe’s book about life in rural Suffolk, where Hall was born. His best TV work was in She’s Been Away (1989) with Peggy Ashcroft, which won several awards at Venice. Peter Hall was awarded the CBE in 1963 and was knighted in 1977. He was married four times, to Leslie Caron, Jacqueline Taylor, Maria Ewing and Nicki Frei. He fathered six children: Rebecca Hall and Jennifer Caron Hall are both actors, Christopher and Edward Hall are both directors, while Lucy and Emma have also acted for their father. 

MICHAEL DARVELL