John Wood

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John Wood, 5 July 1930 – 6 August 2011, was an English actor known for his appearances in Shakespeare and his long association with Tom Stoppard.

He received a Tony Award in a Play in 1976 for his role in Stoppard's Travesties.

He had been nominated for two other Tony Awards, including Sherlock Holmes (1975), and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1968).

Wood was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007 by the Queen's New Year Honours List.

Wood appeared in several films, including WarGames, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Orlando, Shadowlands, The Madness of King George, Richard III, Sabrina, Chocolat.

Early life

Wood was born in Derbyshire on July 5th, 1930. He was educated at Bedford School. He served with the Royal Artillery on his national service. He was refused out after being mistakenly shot in the back during his time of service. He was almost killed in a Jeep accident later in his service.

He studied law at Jesus College, Oxford, where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. In Peter Brook's (1950) and Stratford-Upon-Avon's manufacture of Measures, he had seen John Gield as Angelo. "And then knew what I wanted to do," Wood said after seeing the performances. He appeared as Malvolio in Mansfield College Gardens' production of Twelfth Night, alongside Maggie Smith as Viola. "Looking as lean, lanky, and statuesque as Don Quixote," Oxford Mail wrote about his appearance.

He starred and appeared in a Richard III student production, where he welcomed one of the leading commentators of the time, Harold Hobson, to the scene. He told Hobson that he'd be "wanting in his positions" to ignore a Richard III that was "finer than Olivier." Hobson went to the performance and said he had seen "something not to be missed." "He had a sardonic, amused condescension, and a difficult sense of authority complex," Hobson said of Wood, who predicted "a long future." In 1953, Wood graduated from Oxford.

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Career

He joined the Old Vic company in 1954 in a few small roles over the course of two years as the company staged the complete First Folio of Shakespeare performances. Wood dismissed these roles as "the cheapest way to get a Shakespearean costume on stage," although Kenneth Tynan's Lennox to Paul Rogers' Macbeth "cut like a razor through the stubble of fustian." Bushy and Exton were also present in Richard II, As You Like It, Pistol in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Helenus in Troilus and Cressida.

Don Quixote in Peter Hall's production of Tennessee Williams' Camino Real (Phoenix, 1957). He then joined George Devine's English Stage Company, which at the time was about to change the direction of a new British drama at the Royal Court. Wood penned scripts, co-directed a Sunday film, and appeared in Nigel Dennis' The Making of Moo (1957). Wood appeared in Peter Hall's production The Brouhaha (Aldwych, 1958), in which he appeared in only a small role; however, he appeared in a leading role 15 times.

He turned down several offers from Hall in the early 1960s to join the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company, delaying the beginning of a fruitful career. A Tale of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge is a television show from where he and other actors in A Tale of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge will appear on television. Henry Albertson, a whimsical off-Broadway musical, appeared in the Apollo in 1961 as Henry Albertson. The bulk of the next six years were spent in a variety of film and television series. "Teeth" (February 1967), "Another Moon Called Earth" (February 1967), and "The Bird Who Knew Too Much" (February 1967), an episode of The Avengers, were three of his last TV appearances.

His time with Stoppard brought him right back to life. In his New York debut Wood played Guildenstern in the Broadway premiere of Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Wood's appearance as Guildenstern received a Tony Award. While in America, he appeared in two Jerry Lewis films, One More Time and Which Way to the Front. "He taught me never to be afraid to take a risk," Wood told Lewis. There was only one reaction, laughter, to the most horrible, cruel thing you can imagine."

At the Birmingham Rep. 1970, he returned to England to play Frederick the Great in Romulus Linney's The Sorrows of Frederick. In Harold Pinter's revival of James Joyce's Exiles, he had his first major London success in the same year. Richard Rowan, a self-tortured author with a desire to be deceived by his wife, received the Bancroft Gold Medal in 1970 for Most Promising Actor.

Wood first appeared at the Aldwych Theatre in 1971 under Peter Hall, where he stayed for many seasons. In Maxim Gorky's Enemies in 1971, he played Yakov Bardin. His 1972 appearance as Brutus Caesar in Julius Caesar was his breakthrough appearance. Sir Fopling Flutter, Mark in George Etherege's Restoration comedy The Man of Mode, Mark in Jean Genet's The Balcony, and a narcissistic Saturninus in Titus Andronicus were among the RSC's highlights. Wood was dubbed "the most innovative actor in Britain" by Sheridan Morley following the two Roman plays.

In John Mortimer's Collaborators (Garrick, 1973), he made a "spindly, lecherous, and marginal husband" alongside Glenda Jackson. He appeared in William Gillette's 1899 drama Sherlock Holmes, returning to the RSC. In late 1974, the RSC brought the show to Broadway, earning his second Tony nomination in 1975. It was the start of a seven-year cycle of London and New York City.

Wood played Henry Carr in the 1974 premiere of Tom Stoppard's Travesties before transferring to America. Carr was written specifically for Wood, implying that Trevor Nunn was able to obtain Travesties for the RSC. Carr, Wood alternated between the roles of a querulous geriatric and his younger snobbish self recollecting his encounters with James Joyce, Tristan Tzara, and Lenin in 1917 Zurich. Wood received the Evening Standard Best Actor award. Travesties performed on Broadway in 1975 and received a Tony Award in 1976 and a Drama Desk Award for his work.

Tom Conti, Bob Hoskins, T.P., and Tom Conti appeared at the RSC in 1976. In George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple, McKenna and Zosie Wanamaker took the lead as GM Bugoyne. He appeared in "the ultimate midlife drama" as Chekhov's Ivanov. In Tom Stoppard and André Previn's political oratorio Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Royal Festival Hall in 1977, he played lunatic Ivanov, who imagines he owns an orchestra. He appeared in a Broadway production of Tartuffe in fall 1977 (translated by Richard Wilbur) at Circle in the Square Theatre. Wood appeared in the Broadway revival of Deathtrap, in which he played Sidney Bruhl, a murderous playwright. Wood explained his decision to participate in a more commercial and contemporary venture than he was usually associated with, telling Newsweek, "I just wanted to get on stage in ordinary pants and do one-liners." He was voted the Outstanding Actor in a Play award in 1978 by the Outer Critics Circle. Richard III appeared in a 1979 National Theatre production of the Shakespeare play, but mixed feedback followed his performance. He was in Arthur Schnitzler's Undiscovered Country at the National Theatre at the same time. In November 1981, Wood returned to Broadway, taking over for Ian McKellen as Salieri in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus until spring 1982.

He appeared in a number of Hollywood films, including WarGames (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1984), Ladyhawke (1985), and Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986). He played in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1987 New York. Wood spent three years as a towering figure in England and the RSC. In Nicholas Hyner's production of The Tempest, he appeared in 1988 as an outstanding Prost. Wood, "lit up the text like an electric storm," the critic Irving Wardle said, and there was no one to beat as a source of nervous energy on a stage." Wood's Prosecu "struck me as the best I had ever seen," Michael Billington wrote. His Solness in Adrian Noble's 1989 release of Ibsen's The Master Builder was also lauded. In the same 1989 RSC season, he appeared in The Man Who Came to Dinner, directed by Gene Saks.

With one of his most convincing performances, King Lear's 1990 production was called his "crowning achievement"; "No actor has ever forgotten how Wood, who had issued the most dangerous threats to Goneril, has rushed up to embrace her." His success received the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor of 1991. He appeared in Love's Labour's Lost by Terry Hands in the RSC season.

Wood appeared in far less plays in the early 1970s, but he resurfaced in film and television as a character actor. Shadowlands (1993), Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George (1994), Sabrina (1995), and Ian McKellen's fascist-themed Richard III (1995). Baron de Charlus appeared in Harold Pinter's film adaptation of Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, which was also filmed in 1997.

In Philip Ridley's Ghost from a Perfect Place at the Hampstead Theatre in 1994, he was the East End gangster. In 1997, Wood returned to the National Theatre for Richard Eyre's production The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard. A.E. Wood, a senior classical scholar and poet, appeared on the A.E. Housman was in a role written specifically for him by Stoppard and for which he was given a nomination for an Olivier Award.

In Harold Pinter's The National Theatre in 2001, Spooner at the National Theatre was Spooner. In 2005, he appeared on stage for both parts of Henry IV. Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues had been supposed to be on display in the Old Vic, but he had to cancel due to illness. In 2007, Wood made his last television appearance appearing on Lewis.

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