Richard Findlater

Richard Findlater (1921–1985) was a British theatre critic and biographer.

Early life[]

He was born Kenneth Bruce Findlater Bain, but worked under the pen-name Richard Findlater.^[1][2]

Career[]

Findlater was arts editor for The Observer, and became assistant editor in 1963.^[2][3]

He wrote 18 books, including biographies of Michael Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Lillian Baylis and Joseph Grimaldi; the definitive history of stage censorship, Banned; and an account of contemporary British theatre, The Unholy Trade.^[2]

Publications[]

• Grimaldi: King of Clowns, 1955.
• Michael Redgrave, Mask or Face, 1958
• Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, MacGibbon & Kee, 1968
• Comic Cuts: A Bedside Sampler Of Censorship In Action Richard Findlater (ed) (Andre Deutsch, 1970) (illustrated by Willie Rushton)
• At the Royal Court: 25 Years of the English Stage Company, Amber Lane Press (1981); ISBN 0-906399-22-X

Personal life[]

From 1948 to 1962, he was married to the journalist and showbusiness interviewer Romany Bain, with whom he had four children. One of their sons became an Anglican priest-clown known as Roly Bain or "Holy Roly".^[4] Their eldest son, Simon Bain, is a journalist.^{[citation needed]} Romany Bain subsequently married jazz bandleader Tommy Watt, with whom she had a son, the musician Ben Watt.^[1] Richard married Angela Colbert in 1977.^{[citation needed]} At his memorial service in 1985, Michael Foot and Sir John Gielgud led the tributes.^{[citation needed]}

References[]