Kenneth Haigh

Born in Mexborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, Haigh studied drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama, which at the time was based at the Royal Albert Hall in London.V&A, Theatre and Performance Special Collections, Elsie Fogerty Archive, THM/324

He played the central role of Jimmy Porter in the premiere production of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger in 1956 at the Royal Court Theatre. Haigh's performance in a 1958 Broadway theatre production of that play so moved one young woman in the audience that she mounted the stage and slapped him in mid-performance.{{cite web |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/files/1958_0313_cover.jpg |website=Los Angeles Times |title=Woman Quits Audience to Slap Actor in Play |access-date=26 December 2016}}

For the film version released in 1959, he was passed over in favour of Richard Burton. Coincidentally, Haigh went on to portray the explorer and adventurer Richard Francis Burton in the BBC production of The Search for the Nile. He also briefly appeared in the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night (1964), uncredited.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/obituaries/kenneth-haigh-86-angry-young-man-of-british-stage-dies.html|title=Kenneth Haigh, 86, ‘Angry Young Man’ of British Stage, Dies|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=15 February 2018|work=New York Times|access-date=24 January 2024}} His other major historical roles were as Brutus in Cleopatra and starring as Napoleon in Eagle in a Cage.

Later he portrayed Joe Lampton – a character created by John Braine in the novel Room at the Top – in the television series Man at the Top (1970–72) and its eponymous spin-off film (1973). Haigh also released an LP in 1973, titled How to Handle a Woman.

Haigh made occasional guest appearances on television; for some, the most recognisable is that of time-travelling Flight Lieutenant William Terrence Decker, in the Twilight Zone episode "The Last Flight" (1960).{{cite news |title=Movies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/section/movies |work=The New York Times |access-date=26 December 2016}} He had already played, three years earlier, another pilot, in High Flight, and had portrayed Pat Casey in Lionel Bart's Maggie May.

Haigh married the West Indies model Myrna Stephens in 1974.{{cite web |url=http://www.modelscomposites.com/fullsize.php?count=0&imgno=43964 |title=The Model Archives of Marlowe Press |date=1974 |access-date=16 February 2018 |location=London |publisher=Gavin L B Robinson}} They divorced in 1985, but remained good friends; she nursed him through his final years of ill-health.

Haigh died on 4 February 2018, aged 86. He had spent his last years in a nursing home after oxygen deprivation led to brain damage in 2003, following his accidental swallowing of a bone in a restaurant in Soho.{{cite news |title=Kenneth Haigh |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/obituary-kenneth-haigh-s8xlzw0dz |work=The Times |date=12 February 2018 |access-date=12 February 2018}} {{subscription required}}{{cite news |title=Kenneth Haigh obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/feb/13/kenneth-haigh-obituary |access-date=16 February 2018 |date=13 February 2018 |work=The Guardian}}

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• Othello (Drogheda, 1952)
• The Archers Stage Play (Various, 1953)
• Dear Little Liz (Open Air, Regent's Park, 1955)
• Look Back in Anger (Royal Court, London, 1956) – Jimmy Porter
• The Mulberry Bush (1956) – Peter Lord
• The Crucible (1956) – Rev John Hale
• Cards of Identity (1956) – Beaufort
• Caligula (Broadway, 1960; Phoenix, London, 1964) – Caligula
• Zoo Story (Arts, London, 1961)
• Altona (Royal Court / Saville Theatre, London, 1961) – Franz von Gerlach
• The Collection (Aldwych, London, 1962)
• Playing with Fire (Aldwych, 1962)
• Julius Caesar (Stratford, RSC 1962) – Mark Antony
• Maggie May (Adelphi, London, 1964) – Patrick Casey
• Too Good To Be True (Edinburgh Festival, 1965) – Burglar
• Prometheus Unbound (Yale University Theatre, 1967) – Prometheus
• Henry IV (Yale, 1967)
• The Hotel in Amsterdam (Duke of York's Theatre, London, 1969) – Laurie
• Much Ado About Nothing (Manchester, 1969) – Benedick
• Equus (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, 1969–70) – Dysart
• Prometheus Unbound (Mermaid, London, 1971) – Prometheus
• Marching Song (Mermaid, 1974) – Rupert Foster
• The Father (Haymarket, Leicester, 1975) – Father
• California Suite (Eugene O’Neill Theatre, Broadway, 1977) – Replacement: William, Sidney, Stu
• The Aspern Papers (Chichester Festival, 1978)
• Twelfth Night (Stratford, CT, 1979) – Malvolio
• Julius Caesar (Stratford, CT, 1979) – Brutus
• The Tempest (Stratford, CT, 1979) – Prospero
• Clothes for a Summer Hotel (Broadway, 1980) – F Scott Fitzgerald
• Othello (Young Vic, London, 1982) – Othello

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• ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Season 4 Episode 29: "Banquo's Chair" (1959) – John Bedford
• Season 5 Episode 12: "Specialty of the House" (1959) – Mr. Costain
• Danger Man (1960) episode: "Josetta" – Juan
• Strange Report (1969) episode: "HOSTAGE — If You Won't Learn, Die!"
• Search for the Nile (1971)
• Man at the Top (Thames Television, 1971–73) – Joe Lampton
• Moll Flanders (ITV, 1975) – Jemmy Earle
• Hazlitt in Love (1977) – William Hazlitt
• Maybury (BBC, 1981)
• The Testament of John (1984)
• The Fourth Floor (Thames Television, 1986) – George Payne
• The Blackheath Poisonings (1992) – Charles Russell

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{{reflist|2}}

• {{IMDb name|0354078|name=Kenneth Haigh}}
• {{IBDB name|85156}}
• {{iobdb name|25064}}

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Category:1931 births

Category:2018 deaths

Category:English male film actors

Category:English male television actors

Category:Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Category:People from Mexborough

Category:Male actors from Doncaster