TV & theatre director Anthony Page who worked with Judi Dench, Ian McKellen & Maggie Smith dies aged 90

Showbiz FILM, TV and theatre director Anthony Page has died aged 90. The auteur worked with the likes of Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Richard Burton during his renowned career, including stints in Hollywood. Anthony Page has died aged 90 Credit: Getty His filmography includes his cinema debut Inadmissible Evidence, Oscar-nominated I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Emmy-winning TV movie Pueblo – as well as BBC productions Absolute Hell and the much-acclaimed mini-series Middlemarch. Page’s friend, producer Nica Burns, released a heartbreaking statement confirming his death today. Sign up for the Showbiz newsletter Thank you! She wrote: “It is with great sadness that I share that my good friend, the legendary theatre and film director Anthony Page, died last week at the age of 90. “40 happy years of marriage to husband Kenneth Butler. “34 plays, 38 films for TV and cinema with some of our greatest actors from Maggie Smith and Judi Dench to Ian McKellen and Richard Burton, as well as many awards. “There will be a memorial celebration at St Paul’s the Actors’ Church in the spring. Much missed.” Born in Bengaluru, British India, in 1935, Page was the son of a British Army Brigadier General. He later returned to the UK and studied English at the University of Oxford before working as an assistant director at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Most read in Showbiz Page quickly rose through the ranks of the British theatre scene, serving as the Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1964 to 1973. He directed the original stage premieres of several groundbreaking plays, notably John Osbourne’s Inadmissible Evidence (1964) and A Patriot for Me (1965). He went onto direct the likes of Judi Dench and Joan Plowright at the National Theatre. Page transitioned to films in the late 1960s, making his feature film debut with an adaptation of Inadmissible Evidence (1968). The director also helmed Oscar-nominated I Never Promised You a Rose Garden in 1978 and the double Emmy-winning TV movie Pueblo in 1973. In 1994 he helmed the definitive BBC mini-series adaptation of George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch, which garnered widespread acclaim and six BAFTA nominations. Page’s final film was the BBC TV production My Zinc Bed, starring Uma Thurman and Jonathan Pryce. He is survived by his husband Kenneth Butler, who he was in a relationship with for 40 years. Comment now