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John Wood CBE
As Dr. Stephen Falken inWarGames (1983)
Born	(1930-07-05)5 July 1930 Harpenden, England
Died	6 August 2011(2011-08-06) (aged 81) London, England
Alma mater	Jesus College, Oxford
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1952–2008
Spouses	Gillian Neason (m. 1957;div. 19??) Sylvia Vaughan ​ (m. 1977)​
Children	4

John Lamin Wood (5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011) was an English actor known for his Shakespearean performances and his lasting association withTom Stoppard. In 1976, he received aTony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Stoppard'sTravesties. He was nominated for furtherTony Awards for his roles inSherlock Holmes (1975) andRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1968). His films includedWarGames (1983),The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985),Ladyhawke (1985),Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986),Orlando (1992),Shadowlands (1993),The Madness of King George (1994),Richard III (1995),Sabrina (1995), andChocolat (2000).

In 2007, Wood was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year Honours List.

John Lamin Wood was born to Reginald and Norah (née Lamin) Wood on 5 July 1930 inHarpenden, Hertfordshire; he spent his early years there and inDerby.^[1][2][3] He was educated atBedford School.^[1] He did hisnational service as a lieutenant with theRoyal Artillery. During his time of service, he was invalided out after being accidentally shot in the back. Later during his service, he was almost killed during a Jeep accident.^[1]

Wood studied law atJesus College, Oxford, where he was president of theOxford University Dramatic Society.^[1] He had seenJohn Gielgud as Angelo inPeter Brook's (1950) and Stratford-Upon-Avon production ofMeasure for Measure. After seeing the productions, Wood stated "suddenly knew what I wanted to do".^{[citation needed]} During theMansfield College Gardens production ofTwelfth Night he played the role ofMalvolio alongsideMaggie Smith starring as Viola.Oxford Mail described his performance as "looking as lean, lanky and statuesque as Don Quixote."^{[citation needed]}

Wood directed and starred in a student production ofRichard III where he invited one of the leading critics of the time,Harold Hobson, to the performance. He told Hobson that he would be "wanting in his duties" to ignore a Richard III that was "finer thanOlivier's". Out of curiosity, Hobson went to the performance and reported that he had seen "something not to be missed". Hobson said of Wood's performance: "He had a sardonic, amused condescension and visible superiority complex", and the critic foresaw "a considerable future".^{[citation needed]} Wood graduated from Oxford in 1953.^{[citation needed]}

In 1954, Wood joined theOld Vic company performing a number of small roles over the span of two years as the company staged the completeFirst Folio of Shakespeare plays.^[1] Wood dismissively described these roles as "the cheapest way of getting a Shakespearean costume on stage", althoughKenneth Tynan thought his Lennox toPaul Rogers'Macbeth "cut like a razor through the stubble of fustian".^{[citation needed]} Other roles included Bushy and Exton inRichard II, Sir Oliver Martext inAs You Like It, Pistol inThe Merry Wives of Windsor, and Helenus inTroilus and Cressida.^{[citation needed]}

Wood made hisWest End debut as Don Quixote inPeter Hall's staging ofTennessee Williams'sCamino Real (Phoenix, 1957).^[1] He then joinedGeorge Devine's English Stage Company, which at the time was about to change the course of new British drama at theRoyal Court. Wood read scripts, co-directed a Sunday production, and appeared inNigel Dennis'sThe Making of Moo (1957). Wood returned to the West End in Peter Hall's production ofThe Brouhaha (Aldwych, 1958), in which he had only a small part; but asPeter Sellers's understudy he played a leading role 15 times.^{[citation needed]}

Despairing of a successful career, he rejected several offers from Hall in the early 1960s to join the newly formedRoyal Shakespeare Company, where he chose to appear on television inA Tale of Two Cities andBarnaby Rudge, along with other production. He returned to the West End in 1961 as Henry Albertson in the whimsical off-Broadway musical,The Fantasticks, at the Apollo. Most of the next six years were spent in a variety of films and TV programmes. His last TV performances were in short plays written byTom Stoppard forThirty Minute Theatre: "Teeth" (February 1967) and "Another Moon Called Earth" (28 June 1967). He also appeared in "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" (February 1967), an episode ofThe Avengers (Wood also appeared in the ill-fatedfilm version of the series thirty years later).

Wood's association with Stoppard brought him back to the stage. In his New York debut Wood played Guildenstern in the Broadway premiere of Stoppard'sRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.^[1] Wood's performance as Guildenstern earned a Tony nomination. While in America, he starred in twoJerry Lewis films,One More Time andWhich Way to the Front?. Wood recalled of Lewis: "He taught me never to be afraid to take a risk. There was only one response, laughter, to the most horrific, cruel thing you can imagine."^{[citation needed]}

He returned to England to playFrederick the Great inRomulus Linney'sThe Sorrows of Frederick at theBirmingham Rep in 1970. The same year he had his first real London success in Harold Pinter's revival ofJames Joyce'sExiles. His performance as Richard Rowan, a self-tortured author with a need to be deceived by his wife, won theBancroft Gold Medal award in 1970 for Most Promising Actor.^{[citation needed]}

Wood joined theRoyal Shakespeare Company at theAldwych Theatre in 1971 underPeter Hall, where he remained for several seasons.^[1] In 1971, he played Yakov Bardin inMaxim Gorky'sEnemies. His 1972 performance asBrutus inJulius Caesar was his breakthrough performance.^[1] At the RSC he also played Sir Fopling Flutter inGeorge Etherege'sRestoration comedyThe Man of Mode, Mark inJean Genet'sThe Balcony, and a narcissistic Saturninus inTitus Andronicus. After the two Roman plays, Wood was acclaimed as "the most intellectually exciting actor in Britain" bySheridan Morley.^{[citation needed]}

He appeared inJohn Mortimer'sCollaborators (Garrick, 1973) alongsideGlenda Jackson. Returning to the RSC he took the title role inWilliam Gillette's 1899 dramaSherlock Holmes. The RSC took the production to Broadway in late 1974, attracting his second Tony nomination in 1975. It was the start of a seven year period alternating between London and New York City.^{[citation needed]}

Before transferring to America, Wood took on the role of the diplomat Henry Carr in the 1974 premiere of Tom Stoppard'sTravesties. Stoppard wrote the part of Carr specifically for Wood, meaningTrevor Nunn was able to secureTravesties for the RSC. As Carr, Wood alternated between the dual roles of a querulous geriatric and his younger snobbish self remembering his encounters withJames Joyce,Tristan Tzara, andLenin in 1917 Zurich. Wood was awarded theEvening Standard Best Actor award.Travesties transferred to Broadway at theEthel Barrymore Theatre in 1975, and Wood won aTony Award in 1976 and aDrama Desk Award for his performance.^[1]

At the RSC in 1976 withTom Conti,Bob Hoskins,T. P. McKenna, andZoë Wanamaker, he took the lead as General Bugoyne, inGeorge Bernard Shaw'sThe Devil's Disciple. He also had the title role in "the ideal midlife crisis play", as Chekhov'sIvanov. In 1977, he took the role of the lunatic Ivanov, who imagines he owns an orchestra, in Tom Stoppard andAndré Previn's political oratorioEvery Good Boy Deserves Favour, directed byTrevor Nunn at the Royal Festival Hall. In autumn 1977 he played the title role in a Broadway production ofTartuffe (translated byRichard Wilbur) atCircle in the Square Theatre. In 1978, Wood was in the Broadway success,Deathtrap in which he originated the role of Sidney Bruhl, a murderous playwright. Explaining his decision to take the part (a more commercial and contemporary venture than he was normally associated with), Wood toldNewsweek, "I just wanted to get onstage in ordinary pants and do one-liners."^{[citation needed]} His performance won the 1978Outer Critics Circle Outstanding Actor in a Play award. Wood returned to London as Richard III in a 1979 National Theatre production of the Shakespeare play, but his performance received mixed reviews. At the National Theatre at the same time he was also inArthur Schnitzler'sUndiscovered Country. Wood returned to Broadway in November 1981, taking over forIan McKellen as Salieri inPeter Shaffer'sAmadeus until spring 1982.^[1]

From 1983 and 1986, he acted in a variety of Hollywood films, includingWarGames (1983),The Purple Rose of Cairo (1984),Ladyhawke (1985), andJumpin' Jack Flash (1986).^[1] He then played the Player in the 1987 New York revival ofRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Wood then returned to England and the RSC for three towering roles over the next three years. In 1988 he played an acclaimed a successful Prospero in Nicholas Hyner's production ofThe Tempest. The criticIrving Wardle said that Wood, "lit up the text like an electric storm, and simply had no rival as a source of nervous energy on a stage."^{[citation needed]} Michael Billington wrote that Wood's Prospero "struck me as the best I had ever seen".^{[citation needed]} His Solness inAdrian Noble's 1989 production ofIbsen'sThe Master Builder was as critically lauded. In the same 1989 RSC season he played Sheridan Whiteside inThe Man Who Came to Dinner directed byGene Saks.

HisKing Lear in Nicholas Hytner's 1990 production was called his "crowning achievement" with one of his most compelling performances, in which Michael Billington wrote, "No actor has also brought out King Lear's emotional anarchy: I've never forgotten how Wood, having issued the most terrifying threats to Goneril, suddenly rushed up to embrace her.".^[4] His performance won the Evening Standard award for Best Actor of 1991.^{[citation needed]} In that RSC season, he also played Don Armado in Terry Hands production ofLove's Labour's Lost.^{[citation needed]}

Thereafter, Wood appeared in far fewer plays but returned to playing character roles in films and television. This includedShadowlands (1993), Nicholas Hytner'sThe Madness of King George (1994),Sabrina (1995), and Ian McKellen's fascist-themedRichard III (1995). He also played Baron de Charlus in the 1997 radio adaptation of Harold Pinter's screenplay ofMarcel Proust'sÀ la recherche du temps perdu.^{[citation needed]}

In 1994, he played the East End gangster inPhilip Ridley'sGhost from a Perfect Place at the Hampstead theatre. Wood returned to the National Theatre in 1997 forRichard Eyre's production ofThe Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard. Wood played the aging classical scholar and poetA.E. Housman in a role written specifically for him by Stoppard, and for which he received a nomination for an Olivier Award.^[5]

He played Spooner at the National Theatre in 2001 inHarold Pinter's,No Man's Land. He last appeared on stage in 2005 at the National Theatre in both parts ofHenry IV. He was supposed to appear in theRobert Altman-directedResurrection Blues byArthur Miller at the Old Vic but had to withdraw because of illness.^[6] Wood made his last television appearance guesting onLewis in 2007.

In 1957, Wood married Gillian Neason; they had a son and later divorced.^[1] In 1977, he married Sylvia Vaughan, and had three children.^[1] He lived in Hidcote Boyce,Gloucestershire.^[1]

Wood died from pneumonia andchronic obstructive pulmonary disease atHillingdon Hospital in London on 6 August 2011, aged 81.^[1][7][8]

• Wood was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List of 2007.^[14]

• Obituary,The Times (London), 11 Aug 2011
• Michael Coveney (11 August 2011),Obituary,The Guardian
• Obituary,The Daily Telegraph, 11 August 2011
• Margalit Fox (11 August 2011).Obituary,The New York Times
• "John Wood: an actor who made us see things anew", Michael Billington,The Guardian, 11 August 2011
• Obituary,The Independent, 18 August 2011
• "Why Did Broadway's Leading Man, John Wood, Do a Movie with Farrah Fawcett-Majors? 'Money'",People, 4 September 1978
• "John Wood: At Long Last Lear",Theatre Week, 1990

• John Wood at theInternet Broadway Database
• John Wood atIMDb
• Obituary inThe Guardian
• Obituary inThe Telegraph

• 1930 births
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• 20th-century English male actors
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• Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• Deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
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• Drama Desk Award winners
• English male film actors
• English male Shakespearean actors
• English male stage actors
• English male television actors
• Male actors from Derby
• People educated at Bedford School
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• Royal Shakespeare Company members
• Tony Award winners

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