Glen Byam Shaw

Who was Glen Byam Shaw?

Glen Byam Shaw was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later.

In the 1920s and 1930s Byam Shaw was a successful actor, both in romantic leads and in character parts. He worked frequently with his old friend John Gielgud. After working as co-director with Gielgud at the end of the 1930s, he preferred to direct rather than act. He served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and then took leading directorial posts at the Old Vic, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Sadler's Wells Opera.

Among his best-known collaborators were Peggy Ashcroft, Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton and Michael Redgrave in the theatre, and Colin Davis and Reginald Goodall in the opera house.