Anthony May
Encyclopedia
Anthony May is a British stage, television and film actor. He attended Ottershaw School
, Surrey. May trained at R.A.D.A. from 1965 to 1967.
During the summer break, he played Wick in David Halliwell
's Little Malcolm to Timothy Dalton's Malcolm at the Royal Court for the National Youth Theatre. Then Zigger in Zigger Zagger, which transferred to the Strand Theatre, for which he was nominated for a Variety Award for most promising newcomer.
In his first film, he played The Young Poet in Karel Reisz
's Isadora. Roles in TV, including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for the BBC and the Wednesday play No Trams to Lime Street (musical version), followed. Then a film in Czechoslovakia, Micheal Kohlaas, with David Warner
and Anna Karina
, directed by the Oscar-winning director Volker Shloendorff. A play at the Royal Court, Trixie and Baba by John Antrobus and Richard Cromwell in Cromwell with Richard Harris
and Alec Guinness
.
May starred in the short film Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, directed by Doug Hickox, which has just been re-released on DVD. The Soldier in Brendan Behan's The Hostage, directed by Richard Eyre, was followed by a tour of the Far East playing Prince Hal in Henry IV, parts 1 and 2.
Then a starring role in Cornel Wilde
's No Blade of Grass, and a guest star role in the children's hit series, The Double Deckers, led May, with some friends to form the company that produced the film The Triple Echo, which starred Glenda Jackson
and Oliver Reed
, directed by Michael Apted
.
Playing Sloane in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane to packed houses at the Kings Head theatre preceded tours with the London Shakespeare Group's Macbeth of Iraq, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and Africa, where they played to Maasai warriors in the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro. Macbeth again, this time playing Macduff
at Frank Dunlop's Young Vic Theatre, where a long association over the years developed. This production was toured around Mexico, finishing at the Guanahato Festival. Other plays at the Young Vic included King Lear, The Real Inspector Hound, A Man for all Seasons, Richard 11, Gloo Joo and Anthony and Cleopatra, which starred the great French film actress Delpine Seyrig.
Then to the Bristol Old Vic to play Leonidik in Arbuzov's The Promise, and another production of 'Macbeth', this time playing Banquo
, directed by Richard Cottrell
. A film of Chekov's Zinotchka for the BBC playing opposite Charlotte Rampling. An Australian film They Ran Before the Wind, filmed in the South Seas, in which Anthony played Fletcher Christian in a story of what happened after the mutiny on the Bounty.
He then played Bobby in American Buffalo at the National Theatre, directed by Bill Bryden, and starred in an American drama documentary about Jack the Ripper. Anthony was also in the Jack the Ripper film Murder by Decree with James Mason and Christopher Plummer.
After travelling around America, he played Hamlet at the Northcott Theatre. Other roles there included Captain Plume in The Recruiting Officer and Sir Thomas Overbury in a new play Favours. Anthony worked with Mike Hodges on the Tom Stoppard written film Squaring the Circle, and was also in the film Mcvicar with Roger Daltrey.
There have been many TV appearances, including Z-Cars, Casualty, Juliet Bravo, Dickens of London
, The Bill, London's Burning, Anna Lee, The Paradise Club, El Cid, Bulman, Between the Lines, Softly, Softly, Rockliffe's Babies, Minder, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Chandler and Co, Boon, Coronation Street, The Dream Team, The Hutton Enquiry, The Ice House and Messiah, working with directors Adrian Shergold, Anthony Minghella, Martin Campbell, Stephen Poliakoff and Tim Fywell.
Other stage plays include Richard 11, Gloo Joo, Withdrawal Symptoms, A Chorus of Disapproval, Marino Faliero, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Launderette, A Last Belch for the Great Auk and The Nuns, which he also directed at the Roundhouse. Recently Anthony played the Queen Elizabeth Hall reading the poetry of Rumi in a concert with the world-renowned Iranian musician Davod Aziz. In 2009, Tom Farrow in Casualty for the BBC.
Ottershaw School
Ottershaw School was founded in 1948, as a school for boys located in Ottershaw Park, Ottershaw approximately south west of London between Chertsey and Woking, an estate which dates back to 1761 when the first house was constructed.-History:...
, Surrey. May trained at R.A.D.A. from 1965 to 1967.
During the summer break, he played Wick in David Halliwell
David Halliwell
David William Halliwell was a British dramatist.Halliwell was an art student at Huddersfield College of Art who later studied acting at RADA and was expelled for a time from the former institution...
's Little Malcolm to Timothy Dalton's Malcolm at the Royal Court for the National Youth Theatre. Then Zigger in Zigger Zagger, which transferred to the Strand Theatre, for which he was nominated for a Variety Award for most promising newcomer.
In his first film, he played The Young Poet in Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
's Isadora. Roles in TV, including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for the BBC and the Wednesday play No Trams to Lime Street (musical version), followed. Then a film in Czechoslovakia, Micheal Kohlaas, with David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
and Anna Karina
Anna Karina
Anna Karina is a Danish film actress, director, and screenwriter who has spent most of her working life in France. Karina is known as a muse of the director, Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave...
, directed by the Oscar-winning director Volker Shloendorff. A play at the Royal Court, Trixie and Baba by John Antrobus and Richard Cromwell in Cromwell with Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
and Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
.
May starred in the short film Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, directed by Doug Hickox, which has just been re-released on DVD. The Soldier in Brendan Behan's The Hostage, directed by Richard Eyre, was followed by a tour of the Far East playing Prince Hal in Henry IV, parts 1 and 2.
Then a starring role in Cornel Wilde
Cornel Wilde
Cornel Wilde was an American actor and film director.-Early life:Kornél Lajos Weisz was born in 1912 in Prievidza, Hungary , although his year and place of birth are usually and inaccurately given as 1915 in New York City...
's No Blade of Grass, and a guest star role in the children's hit series, The Double Deckers, led May, with some friends to form the company that produced the film The Triple Echo, which starred Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate...
and Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed was an English actor known for his burly screen presence. Reed exemplified his real-life macho image in "tough guy" roles...
, directed by Michael Apted
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
.
Playing Sloane in Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane to packed houses at the Kings Head theatre preceded tours with the London Shakespeare Group's Macbeth of Iraq, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and Africa, where they played to Maasai warriors in the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro. Macbeth again, this time playing Macduff
Macduff
Macduff may refer to:* Macduff , the character in Shakespeare's Macbeth* Macduff, Aberdeenshire, the former burgh which is now within the Aberdeenshire council area of Scotland* the Clan MacDuff, a Scottish clan...
at Frank Dunlop's Young Vic Theatre, where a long association over the years developed. This production was toured around Mexico, finishing at the Guanahato Festival. Other plays at the Young Vic included King Lear, The Real Inspector Hound, A Man for all Seasons, Richard 11, Gloo Joo and Anthony and Cleopatra, which starred the great French film actress Delpine Seyrig.
Then to the Bristol Old Vic to play Leonidik in Arbuzov's The Promise, and another production of 'Macbeth', this time playing Banquo
Banquo
Banquo is a character in William Shakespeare's 1606 play Macbeth. In the play, he is at first an ally to Macbeth and they are together when they meet the Three Witches. After prophesying that Macbeth will become king, the witches tell Banquo that he will not be king himself, but that his...
, directed by Richard Cottrell
Richard Cottrell
Richard Cottrell is an English theatre director. He has been the Director of the Cambridge Theatre Company and the Bristol Old Vic in England, and of the Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, Australia...
. A film of Chekov's Zinotchka for the BBC playing opposite Charlotte Rampling. An Australian film They Ran Before the Wind, filmed in the South Seas, in which Anthony played Fletcher Christian in a story of what happened after the mutiny on the Bounty.
He then played Bobby in American Buffalo at the National Theatre, directed by Bill Bryden, and starred in an American drama documentary about Jack the Ripper. Anthony was also in the Jack the Ripper film Murder by Decree with James Mason and Christopher Plummer.
After travelling around America, he played Hamlet at the Northcott Theatre. Other roles there included Captain Plume in The Recruiting Officer and Sir Thomas Overbury in a new play Favours. Anthony worked with Mike Hodges on the Tom Stoppard written film Squaring the Circle, and was also in the film Mcvicar with Roger Daltrey.
There have been many TV appearances, including Z-Cars, Casualty, Juliet Bravo, Dickens of London
Dickens of London
Dickens of London is a 1976 television miniseries from Yorkshire Television based on the life of English novelist Charles Dickens. Both Dickens and his father John were played by British actor Roy Dotrice. The series was written by Wolf Mankowitz and Marc Miller...
, The Bill, London's Burning, Anna Lee, The Paradise Club, El Cid, Bulman, Between the Lines, Softly, Softly, Rockliffe's Babies, Minder, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Chandler and Co, Boon, Coronation Street, The Dream Team, The Hutton Enquiry, The Ice House and Messiah, working with directors Adrian Shergold, Anthony Minghella, Martin Campbell, Stephen Poliakoff and Tim Fywell.
Other stage plays include Richard 11, Gloo Joo, Withdrawal Symptoms, A Chorus of Disapproval, Marino Faliero, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Launderette, A Last Belch for the Great Auk and The Nuns, which he also directed at the Roundhouse. Recently Anthony played the Queen Elizabeth Hall reading the poetry of Rumi in a concert with the world-renowned Iranian musician Davod Aziz. In 2009, Tom Farrow in Casualty for the BBC.