Stage director Michael Blakemore dies aged 95

Stage director Michael Blakemore has died at 95 in hospital after a short illness. 

He died on December 10, 2023, his agents, United Agents, said in a statement.

Blakemore was born in Sydney in 1928 and trained as an actor at RADA from 1950, working in repertory theatre in the following decade. 

This was where he met his first wife Shirley Bush. 

His first production as a director was at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, where he was artistic director, in 1966. 

In 1967, Blakemore’s production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg by Peter Nichols transferred to the West End and Broadway. 

Following this, in 1971 he became an associate director at the newly formed National Theatre under Laurence Olivier, where he directed a number of productions including The Front Page, Long Day’s Journey, and The National Health. 

In 1980 Blakemore directed a production of Michael Frayn’s Make and Break at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre that transferred to the West End.

The pair did 18 productions together, in London, New York, Sydney, and Paris.

These included Noises Off, which opened in 1982 and ran for five years at the Savoy Theatre and repeated its success with Blakemore’s Broadway production. They also worked together on Copenhagen at the National Theatre in 1998 and on Broadway in 2000.

His last West End production was in 2014, with Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury.

At the age of 89, he did the London production of an American musical, The Life, which he had first done in New York, and in the following year his last production ran, which was a revival of Copenhagen at the Chichester Festival Theatre. 

He is survived by his second wife, Tanya McCallin, and his three children, Conrad, Beatie and Clemmie and three grandchildren.