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Jonathan Miller, writer and director, dies aged 85
Polymath also had career in medicine and was member of Beyond the Fringe comedy team
...
He rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of the irreverent satirical show, Beyond the Fringe alongside Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett.
He studied medicine at Cambridge, qualifying as a doctor in 1959. He combined his early stage appearances with hospital rounds. But he was soon in demand as a theatre director, in both London and New York, and also worked with the BBC presenting cultural programmes and adapting plays for television.
He directed a series of critically acclaimed operas in the 1980s and 90s.
Oliver Mears, director of opera at the Royal Opera House, said: “Jonathan Miller was one of the most important figures in British theatre and opera of the past half century. Combining a supreme intellect with a consistently irreverent perspective, formed from his experiences in both comedy and medicine, Miller shone a unique light on our art form.”
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/nov/27/jonathan-miller-writer-and-director-dies-aged-85
...
He rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of the irreverent satirical show, Beyond the Fringe alongside Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett.
He studied medicine at Cambridge, qualifying as a doctor in 1959. He combined his early stage appearances with hospital rounds. But he was soon in demand as a theatre director, in both London and New York, and also worked with the BBC presenting cultural programmes and adapting plays for television.
He directed a series of critically acclaimed operas in the 1980s and 90s.
Oliver Mears, director of opera at the Royal Opera House, said: “Jonathan Miller was one of the most important figures in British theatre and opera of the past half century. Combining a supreme intellect with a consistently irreverent perspective, formed from his experiences in both comedy and medicine, Miller shone a unique light on our art form.”
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/nov/27/jonathan-miller-writer-and-director-dies-aged-85
Perhaps not a name that will be familiar to the younger generations, but his star shone bright from his time as a member of the Beyond the Fringe team, which was highly influential in satire and comedy when it stormed both sides of the Atlantic, onwards.
He'll be missed.