Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CH CBE (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two Tony Awards. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 News Year Honours, and knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours.
For other people named Richard Eyre, see Richard Eyre (disambiguation).
Richard Eyre
Director, playwright
Eyre started his career as the associate director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 1967 to 1972 before becoming the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre from 1987 to 1999. He has directed numerous West End productions earning received three Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Director for Guys and Dolls (1982), King Lear (1998), and Hedda Gabler (2006). He was also Olivier-nominated for Racing Demon (1989), Skylight (1995), John Gabriel Borkman (1997), Vincent in Brixton (2003), Mary Poppins (2005), and Ghosts (2014). For his work on Broadway he received Tony Award for Best Director nominations for The Judas Kiss (1998) and The Crucible (2002).
He made his directorial film debut with The Ploughman's Lunch (1983). He went on to direct the dramas Iris (2001) and Notes on a Scandal (2005) earning nominations for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. On television directed and produced numerous episodes of Play for Today (1979–1981). He also directed The Cherry Orchard (1981), Tumbledown (1988), The Dresser (2015), and King Lear (2018).
Early life and education[edit]
Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Mary Jessica Royds.[1]
He was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in northwest Dorset in southwest England, followed by Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge.[2][3] Eyre became the first president of Rose Bruford College in July 2010.[4] He gives "President's Lectures" at this drama school; his 2012 talk was entitled "Directing Shakespeare for BBC Television".[5] He lives in Brook Green, West London.
Style and recognition[edit]
Eyre's archive is part of the performing arts collections at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas alongside friends and collaborators like David Hare, Ian McEwan, and Tom Stoppard. His papers include his personal journals, production scripts, annotated opera libretti, correspondence, photographs, posters, and theatre ephemera.[30]
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours,[31] and knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours,[32] receiving the honour on 4 March 1997.[33] He became a Patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust in 2001.[34] He was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Nottingham on 10 July 2008. He was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.[35]