Frith Banbury

Frith Banbury
MBE
Born
Frederick Harold Frith Banbury

(1912-05-04)4 May 1912
Plymouth, Devon, England
Died14 May 2008(2008-05-14) (aged 96)
London, England
Occupation(s)Actor
Stage director
Years active1933–2000

Frederick Harold Frith Banbury MBE (4 May 1912 – 14 May 2008) was a British theatre actor and director.[1]

Banbury was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 4 May 1912, the son of Rear Admiral Frederick Arthur Frith Banbury and his wife Winifred (née Fink).[2]

While attending Stowe School, Banbury rejected his father's naval background by refusing to join the Officer Training Corps, later being registered as a conscientious objector, enabling him to continue acting throughout the Second World War.[3] He went on to attend Hertford College, Oxford,[2] though he left after one year without obtaining an academic degree.[4] He trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art alongside Joan Littlewood, Rachel Kempson,[3] Robert Morley, and Peter Bull.[5]

Banbury died on 14 May 2008, at the age of 96.[3][5]

  1. ^ "Frith Banbury profile". Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b Ian Herbert, ed. (1981). "BANBURY, Frith". Who's Who in the Theatre. Vol. 1. Gale Research Company. p. 40. ISSN 0083-9833.
  3. ^ a b c Billington, Michael (16 May 2008). "Frith Banbury". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Hertford College Magazine No.88" (PDF). Hertford College. 2008. p. 76. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Frith Banbury, Director whose 1950s reign at the Haymarket Theatre championed writers such as Robert Bolt and Rodney Ackland". The Times. London. 16 May 2008. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2009.