Graham Armitage

(1935-1999) Actor and director for stage, film and TV. Born in Manchester England. Worked extensively on stage, starting his career by appearing in repertory in a string of West End successes, and acting in film and TV in England. In 1973 he came to South Africa to work for Pieter Toerien in Cowardy Custard. He stayed on to become a popular actor of stage, film and TV in the country, often playing British types. He worked for a range of companies, including the Performing Arts Councils. Other stage roles here include The Bed Before Yesterday (Pieter Toerien, 1976), Caught in the Act (Toerien-Firth, 1976), Absurd Person Singular (The Company, 1977), Larry Gelbart’s Sly Fox (The Company, 1979). His South African directing credits include Royce Ryton’s The Other Side of the Swamp (1976), The Company’s production of How the Other Half Loves (1979) and seven highly successful productions for NAPAC in the late 70s and 80s, including Alan Ayckbourne's How the Other Half Loves and Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. A great deal of his early work was for Television in England, and later also in South Africa – including The Avengers (1966-1967), The Saint (1968), Z Cars (1968-73), Westgate, Trucking, Shaka Zulu (1986) and Daisy de Melker (1993), while his many international and local film credits include The Music Lovers (1970), The Devils (1971), The Boy Friend (1971) , Zulu Dawn (1979), Merchants of War (1988), Sweet n' Short (1991), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). [SH]