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Sebastian Shaw
He began as a juvenile at the Royal Court before the First World War; in the 1930s he was, as he put it, "a piece of cinema beefcake"; and then he returned to the Court after the Second World War in plays by John Osborne and John Arden. Shaw matured late. He admitted that he had been "a rotten actor" when young, employed on the strength of his obvious heterosexuality. When time erased his good looks he developed a rubicund and rubbery face, useful in evoking pomp, nervous urbanity or weighty assurance, and was much sought after for his pompous generals and pontificating priests. In 1978 he had a particular success as the deliberate judge in Whose Life Is It Anyway? at the Mermaid. But between the wars he prospered on film, bringing smooth villainy to the title role of The Squeaker (1937) and laying on the heroics for Valerie Hobson during her romantic entanglement with Conrad Veidt in Michael Powell's stylish The Spy In Black (1939). On the wireless his mellifluous voice became familiar in plays and readings. Television did not prove his happiest medium, perhaps because of a debility which made him tremble when handling cups and saucers or trays of drinks. A doctor's son, Sebastian Shaw was born at Holt, Norfolk, on May 29, 1905 and educated at Gresham's and the Slade School of Art. At nine he made his debut on the London stage in The Cockyolly Bird at the Royal Court. After Rada Shaw appeared in regional theaters at Bristol, Liverpool, Hull and Stratford-upon-Avon. He appeared in London as the Archangel in The Sign of the Sun (1925), and played first Lewis Dodd and then the Major in separate productions of The Constant Nymph. In 1929 he created the role of Wyndham Brandon in the thriller Rope, in a Sunday night "try-out". He played the role in New York, but was passed over when the piece moved to London. In the cinema, meanwhile, Shaw made a name for himself in such films as Caste, Brewster's Millions and Farewell Again, and appeared for Alexander Korda in Men Are Not Gods. His first major classical roles in the theatre were Claudio in Measure of Measure (Fortune, 1931) and Romeo (Embassy, 1932) During the Second World War he served in the RAF. In 1945 he directed Dostoevsky's The Gambler at the Embassy. He was Heracles in The Thracian Horses (Lyric Hammersmith, 1946); Mr Hern Lawrance in I Said To Myself (Mercury, 1947); Sir James Kirkham in His Excellency (Prince's 1950); and Filmer Jesson, MP, in Pinero's His House In Order (New, now the Albery, 1951) At the Ludlow Festival in 1956 Shaw played the title role in the first English production of Hugo von Hofmanstahl's Everyman. Five years later he directed his own play Take A Life at the Mermaid, also playing the Detective. The same year at the Dublin Festival he played leads in two plays by Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession and Candida. At the Royal Court in 1965 he played Gen Conrad von Hotzendorf in Osbourne's A Patriot For Me (1965); various roles in Ann Jellicoe's Shelley; Sir Francis Harker in N F Simpson's The Cresta Run and Pte Attercliffe in Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance. In 1966 Shaw joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he showed a crusty charm as Sir Oblong Fitz Oblong in Robert Bolt's The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew, was a doleful Gloucester and a decent Duncan. His gift for dry comedy was put to good use in Maxim Gorki's Enemies and Summerfolk, and he further demonstrated his gift for Russian comedy in Jonathan Miller's production of Three Sisters and in Chekhov's Ivanov. One of Shaw's last television appearances was in The Old Curiosity Shop; his Squire Beltham in a radio production of The Adventurers of Harry Richmond is remembered with affection. In 1975 he published a novel, The Christening. He married Margaret Delamere.
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SEBASTIAN SHAW, the actor who has died aged 89, enjoyed a long and varied career.