Noel Willman | |
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in The Reptile (1966)
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Born | 4 August 1918 Derry, County Londonderry, Ireland, United Kingdom |
Died | 14 December 1988 (aged 70) New York City, New York, United States |
Occupation | Theatre director, actor |
Years active | 1953–1976 |
Noel Willman (4 August 1918 – 14 December 1988) was a Northern Irish actor and theatre director. Born in Derry, Ireland, Willman died aged 70 in New York City, United States.
Willman's films included The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Carve Her Name with Pride (1958), The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Reptile (1966), and The Odessa File (1974).
He was also a theatre director and actor, and won a Tony Award in 1962 for his direction of the original Broadway production of Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons. According to Bolt, he was instrumental in many aspects of the play's development, including the casting of Paul Scofield as Thomas More. In 1966 he was nominated in the same category for James Goldman's The Lion in Winter. He later directed Katharine Hepburn and Christopher Reeve in A Matter of Gravity in 1976. He frequently collaborated with Bolt, directing The Tiger and the Horse and Gentle Jack (and appearing in Zhivago, which Bolt scripted). One of his most famous theatrical roles was opposite Alec Guinness in the stage production of Bridget Boland's The Prisoner, for which he won the Clarence Derwent Award, and which was later made into a film with Guinness and Jack Hawkins.