Nationality: English
Born: 5 July 1930
Died: 6 August 2011
Actor. Wood joined the Old Vic company in London in 1954 before appearing in the West End as Don Quixote in Tennessee Williams's Camino Real at the Phoenix Theatre in 1957. He made his Broadway debut as Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1967. Wood frequently appeared Stoppard's work throughout his career first in Stoppard's short television plays for the BBC Teeth and Another Moon Called Earth (1967), then orientating the role of Henry Carr in Travesties in 1974, appearing as Ivanov in the premiere of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour in 1977 directed by Trevor Nunn at the Royal Festival Hall, and as the poet AE Houseman in Stoppard's The Invention of Love in 1997 at the National Theatre. Wood's work with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) between 1971-1976 was critically acclaimed, particularly as Yakov Bardin in Maxim Gorky's Enemies (1971), Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode (1972), Brutus in Julius Caesar (1972), the title role in Sherlock Holmes (1974), and the title role in Ivanov (1976). He returned to the RSC in 1988 for a further four years where his performance as Prospero in The Tempest (directed by Nicholas Hytner) was lauded by critics in 1988. On screen, Wood appeared in multiple television series and films including Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Slaughterhouse Five (1972), War Games (1983), Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), alongside Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in Heartburn (1986), Franco Zeffirelli's Jayne Eyer (1996), and The White Countess (2005). He was made CBE in 2007.
University of Oxford (Training & Education | Est. Unknown)
Wellington Square, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 2JD, England
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CBE
2007
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https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/aug/10/john-wood-obituary
URL
Obituary by Michael Coveney for The Guardian, 10/8/2011
Simon Trowbridge, The Company: a Biographical Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Editions Albert Creed, 2013)
Biography
This source provides a comprehensive index and brief biographies for key actors, directors, designers and writers who have worked regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Wood's entry can be found on pp. 504-505. An entry for Harold Pinter can be found on pp. 375-377.