Stage and film director Anthony Page has died aged 90

Theatre and film director Anthony Page has died aged 90.

A press statement confirmed that he passed away at Denville Hall on Friday 11 September 2026.

Born in 1935 in Bangalore, Page read English at Oxford then trained as a director in New York under theatre teacher Sanford Meisner. Whilst he was there, he met Tony Richardson who then invited him to work at the Royal Court in London where from 1969 to 1972 he became joint artistic director with William Gaskell and Lindsay Anderson.

In 1973 he directed his first television show in the US, Pueblo, which won 5 Emmy Awards. Over the next 20 years, he directed another 37 films for cinema and television, working with a host of leading actors, including Inadmissible Evidence with Nicol Williamson and My Zinc Bed.

On Broadway, he directed three plays: Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House, and Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker.

As well as directing classics, including Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession with Joan Plowright, in the theatre he had a focus on directing new and contemporary writing. This led to close relationships with writers including Samuel Beckett with whom he worked with on the first British revival of Waiting for Godot, and Edward Albee, directing six of his plays on Broadway, in the West End, and at the Almeida and the National Theatre.

Throughout his life, Page worked with actors including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Plowright, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellen, Richard Burton and Ralph Richardson to name but a few.

In memoriam, David Hare said: “Anthony Page was one of the pioneering theatre directors of his time. On George Devine’s death he took over the artistic directorship of the Royal Court Theatre and ensured its survival. After outstanding stage productions of writers like Albee, Beckett and Osborne, he later mastered television drama, most especially to create an unforgettable Middlemarch. Great actors like Paul Scofield and Maggie Smith trusted him completely, because he was thoughtful, kind and sensitive. What a loss!”

In his personal life, Page enjoyed a deeply happy 40 year relationship with husband Kenneth Butler who succeeds him.

Nica Burns commented: “I had the privilege of producing three plays with Anthony in his later years when he directed Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin at the Apollo, Long Day’s Journey into Night with David Suchet and Laurie Metcalfe at the Apollo and Design for Living with Tom Burke, Lisa Dillon and Andrew Scott at The Old Vic.   He was the most delightful man with a towering intellect and an extraordinary ability with the text. I would have loved to have done more work with him. He was very happy in his private life – Anthony and Ken, his husband of 40 years, were a delightful, loving couple. He will be much missed.”

A small, private cremation and a memorial will take place next spring at St Paul’s, the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden.