Anthony John Hawtrey (1909–1954) was an English actor on stage and screen, and theatre director.
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He was born in Claygate, Surrey, on 22 January 1909, the illegitimate son of Sir Charles Hawtrey[1] and Olive Morris. He was educated at Bradfield College, then studied for the stage under Bertha Moore. From 1930 he worked as an actor in London, on tour in South Africa, and with the Liverpool Repertory Company. In 1939 he was director of productions at the Embassy Theatre in London. Subsequently he was director at the Swindon Repertory Company, then in 1940 - 42 directed and played in over forty plays at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.[1]
In February 1945 he reopened the Embassy, which had been bomb-damaged, as director, and there followed a string of successful productions. From the first two years' productions, twenty plays in all, he selected six for publication unde the title Embassy Successes,[2][3] namely
Further successes followed. In the words of Val Gielgud "Not the least of Mr. Hawtrey's claims to the gratitude of his audiences is his persistent refusal to be deterred from experiment by difficulties of staging whch too frequently have proved fatal to the chances of a play's production in the West End."[4]
In parallel with his work in live theatre, he took part in television and several films, a few of which are
He was married to Marjorie Clark and had a son Charles Hawtrey.[1] He died in London of a heart attack on 18 October 1954.[5]