Initially hired to understudy as Cliff in Look Back In Anger, Hazeldine soon started taking on small roles in Edward Bond's Narrow Road to the Deep North and Early Morning.
Spotting Hazeldine's potential, Peter Gill then cast him in his play Over Gardens Out and went on to direct him in Crete and Sergeant Pepper by John Antrobus.
[1] Although Hazeldine was rarely cast in starring roles, he became noted as an exceptionally honest and truthful actor who after his inductory season at the Royal Court was regularly seen in new plays, e.g.
In 1981 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for a season to appear in productions of Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens, Richard III and Edward Bond's play The Fool.
"[7] Hazeldine was also a prolific television actor who is probably best known for his role as firefighter Mike "Bayleaf" Wilson in the LWT drama London's Burning.
Hazeldine was taken ill on 10 December 2002, a day after portraying Sigmund Freud in Christopher Hampton's play The Talking Cure at the Cottesloe Theatre.
Following Hazeldine's death, Trevor Nunn, director of the Royal National Theatre, described him as "a leading actor of minutely observed truthfulness, comic brio and emotional daring" who "was also a man of infectious enthusiasm, great warmth and humanity who was universally popular amongst his colleagues".