Sir Peter Hall, Tony-Winning Director & Royal Shakespeare Company Founder, Has Died

Sir Peter Hall, the multi-talented director whose contributions spanned four decades on Broadway along with the founding of Royal Shakespeare Company and leadership roles with London's National Theatre, died on September 11 at the age of 86. Hall was diagnosed with dementia in 2011.

Hall's career spanned more than half a century: in his mid-20s he staged the English-language premiere of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. In 1960, at age 29, he founded the Royal Shakespeare Company, which he led until 1968. In 1973 he began a term as director of the National Theatre, where he served until 1988.

Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre from 2003 through 2015, said, "Peter Hall was one of the great figures in British theatrical history, up there in a line of impresarios that stretches back to Burbage. Without him there would have been no Royal Shakespeare Company. When I became director of the National Theatre in 2003, he was unstinting in his support and always generous with his advice. He was the great theatrical buccaneer of the twentieth century and has left a permanent mark on our culture."

After leaving the National Theatre, Hall formed the Peter Hall Company and in 2003 became the founding director of the Rose Theatre Kingston. Throughout his career, Hall was a vociferous champion of public funding for the arts. 

Hall made numerous theatrical contributions to the Great White Way. His Broadway work included two Tony Award wins, for directing the original production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming (1967), a Royal Shakespeare Company transfer, and Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1980), transferred from the Royal National Theatre, where he served as director. Hall's other Broadway projects included Tony-nominated direction of The Rope Dancers (1958), Old Times (1972), Bedroom Farce (1979), Betrayal (1980), The Merchant of Venice (1990), Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (1992) and An Ideal Husband (1996). Hall's final Broadway directorial credit was a 1999 revival of Amadeus.

Hall’s landmark work as a theater director in the U.K. included John Barton’s nine-hour epic Tantalus (2000), As You Like It (2003, with his daughter Rebecca Hall) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2010, with Judi Dench). Hall’s last production at the National Theatre was a production of Twelfth Night in 2011.

Hall is survived by his wife, Nicki, and children, Christopher, Jennifer, Edward, Lucy, Rebecca and Emma, and nine grandchildren.