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

Banbury was born inPlymouth,Devon, on 4 May 1912, the son ofRear Admiral Frederick Arthur Frith Banbury and his wife Winifred (née Fink).^[2]

While attendingStowe School, Banbury rejected his father's naval background by refusing to join theOfficer Training Corps, later being registered as aconscientious objector, enabling him to continue acting throughout theSecond World War.^[3] He went on to attendHertford College, Oxford,^[2] though he left after one year without obtaining an academic degree.^[4] He trained for the stage at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art alongsideJoan Littlewood,Rachel Kempson,^[3]Robert Morley, andPeter Bull.^[5]

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

Banbury made his first stage appearance on 15 June 1933, playing a walk-on part inIf I Were You at theShaftesbury Theatre. He continued to act through the 1930s and 40s, appearing at such venues as theAmbassadors Theatre, theLittle Theatre, theGate Theatre, theApollo Theatre, and theQ Theatre.^[2]

After World War II, Banbury was invited back to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to direct. He made his professional directing breakthrough by directingDark Summer, a play written by fellow pacifistWynyard Browne. Other early successes for Banbury includedThe Holly and the Ivy,Waters of the Moon, andThe Deep Blue Sea.^[3]

The latter was one of three plays which Banbury directed onBroadway, with the other two beingFlowering Cherry andThe Right Honourable Gentleman.^[6] Other locations at which Banbury directed plays include theCambridge Theatre in 1971, (Captain Brassbound's Conversion),Old Vic theatre, theEdinburgh Festival, theChichester Festival Theatre,Paris,Dublin, South Africa, Kenya, and Australia.^[2]

The papers of Frith Banbury were purchased by theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin in the 1990s as part of their extensive holdings of contemporary British theatre. The collection opened to the public in 1996. The archive consists of over sixty boxes of scripts, correspondence, posters, programs, photographs, publicity clippings and scrapbooks, reviews, and financial records pertaining to his career from 1926-1995.^[7] The Ransom Center also holds a collection of material relating to the 1952 American production ofTerence Rattigan'sThe Deep Blue Sea, which was directed by Banbury.^[8]

• Frith Banbury Papers at theHarry Ransom Center,University of Texas at Austin
• Frith Banbury atIMDb

• 1912 births
• 2008 deaths
• Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford
• Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
• British conscientious objectors
• English male stage actors
• English theatre directors
• Male actors from Plymouth, Devon
• Members of the Order of the British Empire
• People educated at Stowe School

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• Use British English from August 2016
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