Michael Newell

Michael Newell (1931-) is a British born stage, television, radio and film actor, active in South Africa during the 1960s.

Also known as Mike Newell

Biography

He was born in England, and began acting at the age of nine in England. Best known for, creating the title role in Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy at the age of 15 years. (The play opened in May 1946 at the Lyric Theatre, London, and ran for over a year, then transferred to the Empire Theater on Broadway in November 1947 and ran in America for more than a year. Newell was the only member of the cast to last the entire run of 1,048 performances over a three year period (IMDb).

He moved to South Africa and lived and worked as an actor in Cape Town from the 1960's, where met Judith Gibson (Judy Gibson) during the Maynardville season of Hamlet in 1963 and they married in Cape Town in 1964. Having been an actor for 30 years (from age 9 to 39) he became involved in property in South Africa with his wife and daughter, moving in 2001 to work in England, Spain, Portugal, California and North Carolina, before settling in Virginia with their and their two grandchildren. In this period he took up photography and has produced a number of books.

Career

Besides his stage work, he did a good deal of radio and TV work before coming to South Africa..

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

While living in Cape Town, he played Laertes in Hamlet (Maynardville, 1963), Edgar in King Lear, (Maynardville, 1966). He appeared in Ring Round the Moon (1964) and Die Laaste van die Takhare (1966) for CAPAB.

Other roles were in The Sound of Music (1963), Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra (as Eros), The Affair (as the lover).

Sources

King Lear theatre programme notes, 1966.

Personal communication by E-mail from Mike Newell (12 January 2018 07:02 AM)

IMDb [1]

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