As Justice Shallow at the NT in 2005
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Award-Winning Classical Actor John Wood Dies

Tony Award-winning actor John Wood, who was made a CBE four years ago for services to drama,  has died at the age of 81.

Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Wood became recognised for a myriad of film and TV roles, though it was on stage that he really made his mark.

After graduating from Jesus College, Oxford, he went on to spend time with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at London's Old Vic, where he appeared alongside Richard Burton.

He received two Tony Award nominations, one for Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1968 and another for Sherlock Holmes in 1974, finally winning for his performance as Henry Carr in the 1976 Broadway production of Stoppard's Travesties.

His association with Stoppard continued throughout his career, and in 1997 he was nominated for an Olivier Award for originating the role of AE Housman in The Invention of Love. Other notable roles included King Lear in Nicholas Hytner's 1990 RSC production, and Travis Flood in Philip Ridley's controversial 1994 play Ghost from a Perfect Place at Hampstead Theatre.

Wood's agent confirmed that the actor died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday (6 August 2011). He added: "John was a distinguished classical actor, who was much loved and respected by his colleagues, and will be greatly missed."

His many screen credits included The Madness of King George, Richard III, Shadowlands, Goodnight Mr Chips, An Ideal Husband, Chocolat and Foyle's War.

He is survived by his wife, Sylvia, and four children.

- by Theo Bosanquet

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