Henry Woolf, SOM (20 January 1930 – 11 November 2021) was a British actor, theatre director, and teacher of acting, drama, and theatre who lived in Canada. He was a longtime friend and collaborator of 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, having stimulated Pinter to write his first play, The Room (1957), in 1956. Woolf served as a faculty member at the University of Saskatchewan from 1983 to 1997 and as artistic director of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan from 1991 until 2001.

Early life

Henry Woolf was born to Jewish parents in Homerton, London on January 20, 1930.^[1] He was educated at Hackney Downs School, where he met Harold Pinter; he and Pinter were friends and collaborators for over 60 years.^[2] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of London and then pursued a postgraduate course in directing at the University of Bristol, before going to the United States, to earn a postgraduate diploma from the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia.^{[citation needed]} In the process of undertaking his directing course at Bristol, he commissioned and directed Harold Pinter's first play, The Room (1957), in which he also originated the role of Mr Kidd.^[2]

Professional career

Woolf's film credits include San Ferry Ann (1965), Marat/Sade (1967), Tell Me Lies (1968), The Lion in Winter (1968), Great Catherine (1968), The Bed Sitting Room (1969), Alfred the Great (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Love Pill (1972), Galileo (1975), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Rogue Male (1976), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978), Gorky Park (1983), Superman III (1983), and Maid to Order (1987). In All You Need Is Cash (1978), a film by the Rutles (a fictional mock-Beatles band jointly created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes), Woolf played a character named Arthur Sultan, a fictional spoof of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. His later film appearances include in the 2004 short film, Of Note and the 2007 short film smallfilm.

On British television, he played the Man in Harold Pinter's one-man play Monologue (1973); parts in Rutland Weekend Television (1975–1976) and The Sweeney (1975); the Collector in the Doctor Who serial The Sun Makers (1977); served as the host of the 1970s pre-school British educational series Words and Pictures; and performed the role of Doctor Cornelius in the BBC adaptation of Prince Caspian (1989). Woolf also played a role in Steptoe and Son (1973) as local gangster Frankie Barrow, a role which had originated in Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973), the second film spin-off of the series.

Woolf joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan in 1983, was promoted to professor in 1990, also serving as head of its Drama Department, and received the university's Master Teacher Award in 1994, before retiring in 1997, at the Canadian mandatory retirement age of 67.^[3] Woolf also served as artistic director of the annual summer Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival, in Saskatoon, from 1991^[4] until his retirement from that position in 2001. In 2001 Woolf was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

In March 2003, Woolf directed an all-female production of Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, at the University of Winnipeg.^[5]

In April 2007, he reprised his roles as Mr Kidd in a production of Pinter's The Room (1957), marking the 50th anniversary of the original production, and as the Man in Pinter's Monologue (1973), both of which occurred at the University of Leeds conference Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter.^[6] He was a member of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.^[7] Woolf received the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal on 17 February 2006 Saskatchewan Centennial Medal.^[8]

Personal life

In 1978, with his wife, actress/director Susan Williamson, whom he married in 1968, Woolf moved to Canada where he took a teaching position at the University of Alberta Drama Department. By 1983, they had settled in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where they were resident until his death. They had four children.

Woolf died on 11 November 2021, at the age of 91.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Filmography