Guthrie, Sir (William) Tyrone

Guthrie, Sir (William) Tyrone (1900-1971), English stage director and dramatist, born in Tunbridge Wells. While an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, Guthrie made his professional debut as an actor and assistant stage manager at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1929, working with the Festival Theatre in Cambridge, Guthrie pioneered the writing and staging of Expressionist plays. He was particularly noted for his Shakespearean productions, especially those for the Old Vic-Sadler's Wells Company, which he headed in 1939-1945 and 1951-1952. In 1953 he was named the first director of the Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, where he remained until 1957. In 1963 he became director of the Minnesota (Tyrone Guthrie) Theatre Company, which he helped found in Minneapolis. He also staged productions in Germany and Israel. He returned to the Old Vic in 1967. Guthrie wrote several plays, including Follow Me (1931) and Top of the Ladder (1950). Other works are his autobiography, A Life in the Theatre (1960), and Tyrone Guthrie on Acting (1971). He was knighted in 1961.