John Bell (Australian actor)

John Anthony Bell, AO, OBE (born 1 November 1940) is an Australian actor, theatre director and theatre manager. He has been a major influence on the development of Australian theatre in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Bell was born 1 November 1940 in Newcastle, New South Wales, and at age 9 or 10 moved with his family to the town of Maitland, New South Wales where he was educated at the Marist Brothers.

He directed the first production of The Legend of King O'Malley (a musical play based on the life of King O'Malley by Bob Ellis and Michael Boddy ) in 1970. The production featured Robyn Nevin and Kate Fitzpatrick.

In 2009 Bell directed the opera Madama Butterfly for Oz Opera; this production toured throughout Australia.

In 1990, Bell founded the theatre company Bell Shakespeare and has produced, among others, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, Pericles, Henry IV, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, King Lear, and Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters.

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