John Franklyn-Robbins, Star of Stage and Screen, Passed Away At 84

The UK Times Online has reported the sad and belated news that John Franklyn-Robbins passed away on March 21, 2009. He was was born on December 14, 1924 and died at 84.

John Franklyn-Robbins was an accomplished and intelligent actor on the London and transatlantic stage. He worked with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Chichester Festival, Bristol Old Vic, and later on Broadway and in Canada and the provinces. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he also played in many films and on television often.

He worked for directors such as David Jones in the role of Ottaviani in The Last Confession, for Peter Stein in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida and for Anthony Page in Tennessee Williams's The Night of the Iguana. He played Fourguard in Peter Wood's production of Farquhar's The Beaux Stratagem at the National Theatre, Caesar in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Ludlow Festival and performed the role of Dr Rank in Adrian Noble's version of Ibsen's A Doll's House.

From 1990 he acted on the stage in New York under Michael Langham's direction in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, in Shaw's Saint Joan and Chekhov's The Seagull. He also acted in the the US under the direction of Tony Randall, Marshall Mason and Peter Hunt. At the Stratford Theatre, Ontario, he acted in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1, in Love's Labour's Lost and Much Ado About Nothing.