John Dexter

John Dexter (2 August 1925 – 23 March 1990) was an English director of theatre, opera and film.

Born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, he left school at fourteen to serve in the British Army during the Second World War; after the war he worked as a stage actor before moving into producing and directing repertory productions. In 1957 he became Associate Director of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court.

His first major success was the 1959 production of Roots, which raised Joan Plowright’s profile. He subsequently directed Toys in the Attic (with Wendy Hiller, 1960) and Saint Joan (1963). In 1964 he was appointed Associate Director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and produced The Royal Hunt of the Sun that year.

That same year Dexter directed a production of Othello starring Sir Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Frank Finlay; it was recorded by RCA as an audio version and in 1965 Stuart Burge filmed the stage performance for BHE Films (now on DVD).

Later productions included Hamlet (with music by Conrad Susa, 1969), Equus (1973), Trevor Griffiths’s The Party (Lord Olivier’s final stage appearance, 1973), Phaedra Britannica (with Diana Rigg, 1975), The Merchant (also known as Shylock, 1977), As You Like It (music by Harrison Birtwistle, 1979), Life of Galileo (with Sir Michael Gambon, 1980), The Glass Menagerie (with Jessica Tandy, 1983) and Julius Caesar (1988). His final major successes were M. Butterfly (1988) on Broadway and the 1989 Broadway staging of Die Dreigroschenoper with Sting as Macheath.

Dexter’s first feature film was The Virgin Soldiers (with Lynn Redgrave, 1969); his second was The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (also known as Pigeons, with Elaine Stritch, 1970), and his third was I Want What I Want (1972).

For Granada Television he directed Twelfth Night in 1969, starring Sir Alec Guinness and Sir Ralph Richardson.