Alan Howard (actor)

[citation needed] Alan Howard made his first stage appearance at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, in April 1958, as a footman in Half In Earnest.

This was followed by Monty Blatt in Chicken Soup with Barley at the Royal Court during June and July 1960, completing the Wesker Trilogy with a revival of Roots and the transfer of I'm Talking About Jerusalem (as 1st Removal Man).

[citation needed] At the Pembroke Theatre in Croydon he played Kenny Baird in A Loss of Roses during January 1961, and the following month a return to the Royal Court as de Piraquo in Tony Richardson's production of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's Jacobean tragedy The Changeling, then little known.

[citation needed] Engaged by H.M. Tennent Productions, 1964 brought him an international tour of South America and Europe,[4] playing both Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Howard first joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1966, cast as Orsino in Twelfth Night, Burgundy in Henry V and Lussurioso in The Revenger's Tragedy.

Subsequent RSC roles, all at Stratford unless otherwise stated, included: Howard then played Eric von Stroheim in The Ride Across Lake Constance at the Hampstead Theatre in November 1973, transferring to the May Fair Theatre in December; and again played Cyril in The Black and White Minstrels, revived at Hampstead in January 1974, before returning to the RSC, where his roles included: Alan Howard then left the Royal Shakespeare Company.

[citation needed] Howard won his first Plays and Players award in 1969, voted by the London theatre critics as the Most Promising Actor in the RSC repertoire.

His second came in 1977, again voted for by the London critics, when he won as Best Actor for his RSC performances in Wild Oats, the three parts of Henry VI and Coriolanus.

Howard played the lead character of Sam McCready, an intelligence agent, in the 1989–1990 television movie series Frederick Forsyth Presents.