John Reginald Neville, CM OBE (2 May 1925 – 19 November 2011)[1] was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned more than sixty years.

Neville was one of the young leading lights of the British theatre in the early 1950s, with he and contemporary and friend Richard Burton honing their crafts at The Old Vic, where over the course of five years they worked their way through the Shakespearean canon.

Neville was a great champion of young talent throughout his career, as was evident when a 23 year old Judi Dench made her professional debut as Ophelia opposite his Hamlet in 1957.

It was in that same year that he, along with Frank Dunlop and Peter Ustinov, became artistic directors of the Nottingham Playhouse, with Neville later assuming sole charge.

For three years in a row, he was taken along with Dawson’s 5 nieces, one of which included future historian Lorna Arnold, who recalled that “in time he became one of our extended family”.

It was only upon being demobbed and being able to claim his Ex-Serviceman’s Grant and still being able to live at home in London that he was able to begin studying at RADA in Gower Street and train as an actor in 1946.

However, it was in January 1949 that he soon moved to the prestigious Birmingham Repertory Company, then located in Station Street, under the pioneering leadership of Sir Barry Jackson.

A holiday to France with Hooper soon developed into a relationship, with Neville proposing to Caroline at the end of September and getting married before Christmas at St Mary's Church, Moseley with Eric Porter as best man.

Neville was then offered the chance by Denis Carey to work at the Bristol Old Vic in their repertory company, where he won acclaim for playing Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer, the Duke in Measure for Measure, the title role in Henry V, Slim in Of Mice and Men, and PC Tom Blenkinsop in the actor's first stage musical, Christmas in King Street.

In his first official season, Neville was cast as King Henry V and then not long after, as Fortinbras opposite Richard Burton who was playing Hamlet for the first time.

By now, Neville had established himself as a matinee idol and a West End star of the 1950s, later hailed as "one of the most potent classical actors of the Richard Burton–Peter O'Toole generation".

In the final season of the five year plan at the Old Vic, Neville played the part of Hamlet, with Judi Dench as his Ophelia, in what was her first professional performance after leaving drama school.

[10] Though Dunlop and Ustinov soon left, Neville remained at the theatre until 1967, when he resigned over funding disputes with the local authority and the Arts Council.

It was there that I saw him play Richard II, and it still remains one of the best Shakespearean performances I've ever seen – beautifully orchestrated, exquisitely spoken, wholly authoritative.Neville starred as the Duke of Marlborough in the BBC2 serial The First Churchills (1969), a major television role which also maintained his international profile when the show was broadcast as the very first Masterpiece Theatre series in the United States in 1971.

[15] On top of his artistic decisions, Neville helped eliminate the Neptune's deficit with canny promotions, such as giving free tickets to the local taxi drivers and their families, correctly anticipating that recipients would enthusiastically discuss the theatre with passengers and tourists.

In his later years, Neville had numerous cameo appearances in films, including primate of the Anglican Church in Australia in The Man Who Sued God and an admiral in the Earth Space Navy in The Fifth Element.

In 2003, Neville performed a stage reading of John Milton's Samson Agonistes, with Claire Bloom at Bryn Mawr College at the behest of poet Karl Kirchwey.

It was whilst playing Othello in 1956 that his daughter Emma was born, with Richard Burton announcing the news to the audience at the curtain call.

Eyre later recalled in an obituary that "John was tall, aquiline, a natural aristocrat with feline grace who disguised well the roaring boy underneath.…John was infectiously anarchic – wild, larky and raffish as well as supremely skillful as an actor and inspiring as the leader of a company.

I was overwhelmed by the productions, even more so when John took me backstage at the Old Vic to meet Helene Weigel (Brecht's widow) and Ekkehard Schall (Coriolanus).