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. Retrieved 17 December 2009.