Julian Oddy
Theatre researcher and founder of playwright database Doollee.com
A leading figure in research about theatre criticism and playwrights, Julian Oddy has died aged 75.
Apart from a spell doing the books for the late Dan Crawford at his King’s Head Theatre in Islington, Oddy’s professional career was largely spent outside theatre, including a number of years developing systems for Westland Helicopters.
His wife Pat was a drama-teacher and LAMDA examiner and had a large collection of plays. Prompted by this, in his spare time Oddy developed and ran the website Doollee.com, an encyclopaedic listing of playwrights and their work since 1956 that could be accessed free.
Launched in 2003, it now lists nearly 57,000 playwrights and more than 193,000 plays.
As an exercise, he began to scan the back volumes of London Theatre Record (later Theatre Record), the critical history of the British stage. In 2010, he took over its management and began to prepare it for its transition from print to online in 2019. He retired in late 2021.
Julian Oddy was born on September 27, 1946 and died on September 17. He is survived by his wife, Pat.
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