Victor Melleney

Victor Melleney (1922-2006) was a British born actor, director and production manager.

Not to be confused with Victor Melleney (1945-), the disgraced former BBC producer of documentary programmes

Biography

Born in London, England, on 13 August 1922, where he entered the theatrical profession as actor and director.

He was brought out to South Africa in 1958 to work for the National Theatre Organisation (NTO) as director and as actor from 1959-1962. He stayed on to work for the Performing Arts Councils, the Pieter Toerien company and others and to appear in a range of films. Like most professionals, he also directed for amateur companies, such as the Bloemfontein Reps.

He died on 14 April 2006 in South Africa.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As an actor, he appeared in :

The Cave Dwellers (NTO 1959), The Complaisant Lover (1960), There Goes the Bride, Rosebloom, Who Killed "Agatha" Christie? (at the Academy Theatre), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (as “Ed Earl Dodd” at His Majesty's Theatre), Hello, Dolly! (as “Horace van der Gelder”), My Fair Lady (as “Alfred Doolittle”). Brian Brooke’s Any Wednesday with Helen Cotterill and Vivienne Drummond in 1973. In 1988 he appeared as Goldman in District Six – The Musical at the Market Theatre. He starred in Michael Pertwee’s Birds of Paradise at the Alhambra Theatre in 1992. He also played in The Villagers in 1977 for the SABC - TV.

As a director The Cave Dwellers (NTO 1959), the musical Dingaka in 1961, The School for Wives, Seven against the Sun, Mornings at Seven (1959), An Oak Falls in Bishopscourt (at the Baxter Theatre), Send for Dolly (at the Academy Theatre), J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World (for PACT at the Civic Theatre in 1963), Lokval Vir 'n Man Alleen (Trap for a Lonely Man) (for TRUK in 1963), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (PACT 1965) , an adaptation of War and Peace at the Alexander Theatre for PACT in 1966, The Mask and the Face (PACT, 1967) and The Skinflint, 1969, Another Sip of Jerepigo, 1990. For PACT, he directed the operas Prodaná nevěsta (1966) and Madama Butterfly (1967 and 1968).

Among his many film roles have been appearances in Safari 3000 (1982), Never Say Die (1994), Cyborg Cop II (1994) and The Last Samurai (1990).[1]

Sources

SACD 1974, 1979/80, 1980/81, 1981/82.

Tucker, 1997.

Mornings at Seven (NTO) theatre programme, 1959.

Various entries in NELM catalogue.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0577910/

Alexandra Xenia Sabina Mossolow[2]. 2003. The career of South African soprano Nellie du Toit, born 1929. Unpublished Masters thesis. University of Stellenbosch.[3]

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