Nicholas Amer

Nicholas Amer was born on 29 September 1923 in Tranmere, Birkenhead, into a working class background. His father, Thomas Amer, was a bedroom steward aboard the Cunard liner RMS Laconia (and later Chief Steward aboard the Queen Mary), and his mother, Margaret (née Smart), had worked for Lever Brothers in their soap factory. He was christened Thomas Harold Amer in St Luke's Church of England Church in Tranmere{{cite web|title=Cheshire Churches|url=http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/chs/churches/lower%20tranmere.html|work=GENUKI – UK & Ireland Genealogy|access-date=19 October 2013}} and thereafter called Harold by his parents, brother and two sisters. It was many years later that he changed his name to Nicholas for the stage.

Educated at the Ionic Street School in Rock Ferry on The Wirral and then at the Alpha Drive School (which later became Kirklands Secondary Modern School),{{cite web|title=Wirral School Admissions|url=http://www.wirral.gov.uk/catchment/SchoolDetails.asp?SchoolName=ROCK%20FERRY|work=Wirral Borough Council|access-date=19 October 2013}}{{cite web|title=Wirral Archive Service School Records|url=http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/leisure-and-culture/wirral-archives-service/documents-we-hold/collections/school-records|work=Wirral Borough Council|access-date=18 October 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202235052/http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/leisure-and-culture/wirral-archives-service/documents-we-hold/collections/school-records|archive-date=2 December 2013|df=dmy-all}} he appeared in the latter's Christmas play Jim Davis, adapted by his English Master, in December 1936. His mother, in the audience that night, was never to see him perform again as she died a year later of tuberculosis. His father was hospitalised after a street accident the same year, forcing the 14-year-old Harold to leave school, get a job and take on some of the family responsibilities.

By the time war was declared, Amer was working as a clerk in the offices of P. & T. Fitzpatrick in Liverpool, and then in 1941 he enlisted in the Royal Navy. Following training at what had been Butlins Holiday Camp in Skegness and then learning telegraphy at the training camp HMS Scotia in Ayr, Scotland, he became wireless telegrapher Amer, DJX 344924. He first served with a flotilla of Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) based at Weymouth in Dorset. Then he was posted to the 24th MTB Flotilla in Bône, North Africa{{cite web|title=Royal Navy Coastal Forces|url=http://www.unithistories.com/units_british/RN_MTBs.html#24th_MTB_Flotilla|work=World War II Unit Histories & Officers|access-date=19 October 2013|author=Hans Houterman|author2=Jeroen Koppes }} to replace one of six 'Sparkers' killed in action in the Mediterranean. In Liverpool, on the last night of his embarkation leave, he wandered into the Playhouse to see Shakespeare's As You Like It, the cinemas all being full on that rainy evening.{{cite news|title=Limelight|newspaper=The Stage|date=10 September 1959|page=8}} The performance impressed him so much that he decided that if he could survive the War he would become an actor and devote himself to acting Shakespeare's plays.

Next day he boarded a ship in Liverpool to join a convoy to Algiers. Following Erwin Rommel's defeat and the liberation of North Africa, Amer, now wireless operator aboard MTB 243, was sent to Malta. In July 1943 the Allied Forces invaded Sicily and Amer took part in the invasion and those of southern France and Greece. During operations in Sicily, he was badly wounded in action but recovered in a field hospital near Catania. When the war in Europe ended, his boat was seconded to UNRRA, the United Nation's Relief and Rehabilitation Authority. A few weeks later the War finally ended before he could be sent to the Far East to face the Japanese.

Demobilised in 1945, Amer returned to the Liverpool Playhouse and asked the stage door keeper for advice. The latter sent him to see the Director, John Fernald, who had also served in the Royal Navy during the War.{{cite web|title=John Fernald - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0272772/|access-date=20 November 2013}} Fernald, who was later to become Director of RADA in 1955, recommended the Webber Douglas School in South Kensington. Amer learned a soliloquy from Richard II, took the train to London, did the audition and was accepted. In his first term at the drama school, Amer was cast as Romeo and was offered a two-year scholarship. In his final year he won the Webber Cup for Best Actor which was presented to him by Sir Donald Wolfit.

As a result of his award, John Fernald offered him a contract to join the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company, which Amer accepted. In September 1948 he became a professional actor and took the stage name Nicholas Amer. His success in the third play of that season, The Intruder, a translation of Asmodé by the French playwright Jean-Jacques Bernard,{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 October 1948|page=9}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=4 November 1948|page=13}} prompted Fernald to make him the Juvenile Lead of the company.{{cite web|title=Juvenile Lead|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/juvenile-lead|work=Cambridge Dictionaries Online|publisher=Cambridge University Press|access-date=19 October 2013}} In the final play of the season, Amer was cast as Ferdinand in The Tempest, his first Shakespearean role as a professional actor.

Amer was essentially a 'character' actor rather than a leading man. His first London play was Fernald's production of Pinero's The Schoolmistress at the Arts Theatre, with Joan Harben,{{cite web|title=Joan Harben|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0361890/|publisher=IMDb|access-date=19 October 2013}} Philip Stainton and the rising star of British films at the time, Nigel Patrick.{{cite news|title=The Arts – "The Schoolmistress"|newspaper=The Stage|date=11 August 1949|page=7}} When it finished, Fernald asked Amer to play a young American opposite Jill Raymond in Rain Before Seven at the Embassy Theatre in London.{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=8 September 1949|page=7}} The stars of this new play by Diana Morgan were Ronald Ward, Marian Spencer,{{cite web|title=Marian Spencer|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0818025/|publisher=IMDb|access-date=19 October 2013}} Joyce Heron and William Fox. However, following the first night, the Daily Express headline ran "Rain Before Seven, ...Strain Before Eight", and the play bombed.{{cn|date=February 2025}}

When the play failed to transfer to a bigger theatre, Amer was suddenly out of work. He was forced to sign on twice a week at the Labour Exchange and to find cheaper 'digs' (lodgings) in which to stay. Eventually Basil Jefferies of Renee Stepham Ltd took him on and acted as his agent.{{cite web|title=Obituaries: Renee Stepham|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/2007/05/renee-stepham/|work=The Stage|publisher=The Stage|access-date=20 October 2013|author=Charles Vance|date=May 2007|page=3}} During this time he also accepted small television roles. In between these, he accepted an invitation to play Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice opposite Canadian actress Barbara Chilcott as Jessica for a tour of the Welsh valleys,{{cite encyclopedia|last=Sperdakos|first=Paula|title=Barbara Chilcott|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/barbara-chilcott|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316130041/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/barbara-chilcott|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 March 2012|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=20 October 2013}} for little money and travelling by coach, with the actors having to set the stage themselves and take it down after each performance.

Again out of work following the end of the tour, Amer worked at various times as a Christmas postman, a waiter at a holiday camp on the Isle of Wight, and a night-shift worker at Wall's ice cream factory. He accepted an offer from Guildford Rep for a contract to share the task of playing leading roles in a different play each week with Edward Woodward. The season included Henry V. Leading actor Laurence Payne joined the company to play the lead role and Amer played the Dauphin of France. At that time he was recommended to John Gielgud who was casting for his forthcoming season of three plays at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and Gielgud sent for him. Amer auditioned and was offered the role of Green in Gielgud's production of Richard II,{{cite news|title=King Richard at Hammersmith|newspaper=The Stage|date=1 January 1953|page=19}} which would star Paul Scofield alongside Eileen Herlie, Pamela Brown, Eric Porter, Noel Willman and Herbert Lomas. In the other production of that season, Venice Preserv'd by Thomas Otway, starring Gielgud opposite Eileen Herlie, and directed by Peter Brook, Amer played Ternon, one of the conspirators, and understudied to Eric Porter.{{cite news|title=Lyric, Hammersmith – "Venice Preserv'd"|newspaper=The Stage|date=21 May 1953|page=9}} Gielgud, who was knighted in the new Queen's Coronation Honours List in 1953, announced that the Richard II production was being flown out to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as part of the Cecil Rhodes centenary. It was Amer's first overseas tour.

Following the tour, Amer travelled to the Channel Islands to perform in a comedy, Blue for a Boy. John Fernald directed him once again in London, playing Razumikhin, with Kenneth Griffith as Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment. The new young director Peter Hall asked him to play the bridegroom in Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding.{{cite news|title=The Arts – "Blood Wedding"|newspaper=The Stage|date=11 March 1953|page=9}} Michael Benthall offered him a season at The Old Vic, but only small parts and understudying were on offer,{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=19 August 1954|page=8}} except for a stint at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival as Donalbain in Macbeth, with Paul Rogers and Ann Todd in the leading roles.{{cite news|title=The Edinburgh Festival – Paul Rogers's Macbeth and Fonteyn's Firebird|newspaper=The Stage|date=26 August 1954|page=9}} In 1955, when Regent's Park Open Air Theatre offered him the chance to play Ferdinand in The Tempest,{{cite news|title='The Tempest' in the Park|newspaper=The Stage|date=9 June 1955|page=9}} Amer persuaded Benthall to release him. He played Ferdinand for a second time, this time with Robert Eddison as Prospero and James Maxwell as Ariel, and with June Bailey as Miranda,{{cite web|title=June Bailey - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1344236/|access-date=20 November 2013}} and then on alternate nights playing Percinet opposite Hilda Schroder in Rostand's The Romanticks (Les Romanesques),{{cite web|title=Hilda Schroder - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1544626/|access-date=20 November 2013}}{{cite news|title=Rostand in the Park – Charm of 'The Romanticks'|newspaper=The Stage|date=11 August 1955|page=9}}{{cite news|title=Romance in Regent's Park|newspaper=The Sphere|date=20 August 1955|page=278}}{{cite news|title=At the Play|newspaper=Punch|date=17 August 1955}} with character actors Russell Thorndike and Robert Atkins as the two fathers.{{cite book|last=Parker|first=John|title=Who's Who in the Theatre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ABu1AAAAIAAJ|access-date=16 April 2012|year=1956|publisher=Pitman|page=119}} He also performed Shakespeare live on TV, including playing Sebastian in BBC Sunday Night Theatre's Twelfth Night (1957) with Dilys Hamlett as Viola in a production by Michael Elliott and Caspar Wrede.{{cite news|title=TeleBriefs...|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 February 1957|author=Andrew Gray|page=12}}{{cite news|title=Young Cast is Given Chance in Twelfth Night|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 February 1957|page=12}}{{cite news|title='Twelfth Night' Without Revels|newspaper=The Stage|date=14 March 1957|author=A.G.|page=12}} He showed his versatility by also appearing in the 1958 musical Keep Your Hair On at the Apollo Theatre in London, directed by John Cranko and with settings and costumes designed by Tony Armstrong-Jones (later 1st Earl of Snowdon) and Desmond Heeley.{{cite news|title=A Profile of Set and Costume Designer Desmond Heeley - WSJ.com|url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704415104576066513056659514/|access-date=20 November 2013|author=Pia Catton|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=8 January 2011}}{{cite news|title='Keep Your Hair On': Experiment With Time|newspaper=The Stage|date=20 February 1958|author=Raymond B. Marriott|page=9}}

Amer's next big break came in 1958 when Peter Haddon, director of the Wimbledon Theatre, chose him to play Hamlet. All Hamlets then were middle-aged as it was thought essential to have the necessary experience. Amer was 35 years old, but looked ten years younger. The public found this young Hamlet easier to understand and reacted well. His new agent, Herbert de Leon, who wanted to get him away from Shakespeare for a while, sent him for an acting part in a musical called Chrysanthemum at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London.{{cite news|title=Sports and Travels of Chrysanthemum Brown|newspaper=The Stage|date=20 November 1958|author=Raymond B. Marriott|page=11}}{{cite news|title=Damsels In Distress – Gay Parody of Old Melodrama|newspaper=The Times|date=14 November 1958}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Dancing Times|date=January 1959|author=Eric Jones}}{{cite news|title=Shows Abroad – Chrysanthemum|newspaper=Variety|date=14 November 1958|author=Myro}} The choreographer, Alfred Rodrigues,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/feb/19/guardianobituaries2|title=Alfred Rodrigues obituary|work=The Guardian|access-date=21 October 2013|author=Mary Clarke|date=19 February 2002}} had other ideas and cast him in a leading part as Pepe, the lead dancer, to play opposite and dance with the show's musical star, Patricia Kirkwood.

In 1960 following appearances in The Taming of the Shrew and The Apple Cart at the Oxford Playhouse,{{cite news|title=A Lively and Versatile 'Shrew' at Oxford|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 April 1960|page=21}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=20 September 1960|page=18}} the director Frank Hauser invited him to be part of an overseas tour to India, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) with The Oxford Playhouse Company, playing Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night and directed by himself,{{cite news|title=Chit Chat – Classics in India|newspaper=The Stage|date=3 September 1959|page=8}} and also to play Alex in T. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party, directed by Harold Lang.{{cite news|title=Passage Through India – Beginning with Poona!|newspaper=The Stage|date=31 March 1960|author=Nicholas Amer|page=19}} This tour, and his meeting Harold Lang, would change his life and career profoundly.

Back in London and out of work again, Harold Lang asked Amer, along with fellow actor from the India tour, Greville Hallam,{{cite web|title=Greville Hallam - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3787009/|access-date=20 November 2013}} to join him teaching drama students at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. They spent almost a year writing a play together, based on their teaching of the techniques that an actor needs to bring Shakespeare's printed text to life, calling it Macbeth In Camera.{{cite news|title=MACBETH IN CAMERA at Leicester|newspaper=The Guardian|date=22 January 1963|author=Gareth Lloyd Evans}}{{cite news|title=Theatre Out Of Lecture|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 November 1963|author=Harold Lang|page=15}} At its first performance, at the Webber Douglas School, they invited representatives of the British Council to see it. In April 1963, the Council, who had liked the play, offered them a tour of South America. They called their company 'Voyage Theatre'.

On 1 July 1963, the then four members of Voyage Theatre, Harold Lang, Greville Hallam, Ralph Gruskin and Nicholas Amer, arrived in Jamaica.{{cite web|title=Ralph Gruskin|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2430072/|access-date=20 November 2013}} A packed audience, including Sir Alexander Morley, the British High Commissioner and his wife, saw their performance of Macbeth in Camera. "No question about its success," wrote Norman Rae, theatre critic of The Daily Gleaner,{{cite news|last=Rae|first=Norman|title=Thane without tears|newspaper=The Daily Gleaner|date=4 July 1963}} while The Star ran "A refreshing and at times an exciting experience". Performances followed in Trinidad, Dominica, Antigua, Barbados, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.{{cite news|title=Macbeth en Cámara – Se informo sobre la proxima actuación en esta, de 4 comediantes británicos|newspaper=El Día|date=5 July 1963}}{{cite news|title=Actuara un conjunto inglés en el solis|newspaper=La Mañana|date=5 July 1963}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=El Diario|date=5 July 1963|page=5}}{{cite news|title=Vendra un teatro británico de Cámara|newspaper=El Plata|date=7 July 1963}}{{cite news|title=Teatro de Cámara – Viene conjunto inglés experimental|newspaper=El País|date=12 July 1963}}{{cite news|title=Shakespeare ¿Palabra o Acción?|newspaper=Acción|date=9 July 1963}}{{cite news|title="Macbeth" en el solis|newspaper=El Debate|date=19 July 1963}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=Advocate|date=10 July 1963}}{{cite news|last=Clarke|first=Margaret|title=Macbeth In Camera: Instruction As Well As Top Acting|newspaper=South Pacific Mail|date=26 July 1963}} In Buenos Aires, their final venue, they were put into the Teatro Odeón, so heavy was the booking to see them. La Prensa's review next day said, "Very seldom can the word 'brilliant' be more appropriately applied than to this production". Later that year the four actors won a collective Best Foreign Actor Award at the Argentine Awards Ceremony in Buenos Aires.

The British Council next sent Voyage Theatre, described by senior executive Valerie West at the time as "four splendid ambassadors waving the flag for Britain," to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Iran (Tehran and Shiraz) and Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria) as part of their Shakespeare Quatercentenary celebrations.{{cite news|title=Chit Chat – 'Macbeth In Camera'|newspaper=The Stage|date=2 January 1964|page=8}}{{cite news|title="Macbeth In Camera" was a Revelation|newspaper=Bega District News|date=20 March 1964}}{{cite news|title='Man Speaking' – Lang explains|newspaper=The Egyptian Gazette|date=17 March 1964}} The Council had also persuaded the Australia Council for the Arts to squeeze Voyage Theatre into their line-up for the next Adelaide Festival.{{cite news|title=The Queen Mother To Open Arts Festival|newspaper=The Stage|date=30 January 1964|page=15}} On 2 March 1964, Amer arrived with his three fellow actors in Australia.{{cite news|title=Macbeth in Camera|newspaper=The Stage|date=19 March 1964|page=8}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Courier-Mail|date=17 October 1964|page=7}}{{cite news|last=Smith|first=G. A. W|title='Man Speaking' a memorable performance|newspaper=Toowoomba Chronicle|date=19 October 1964}}{{cite news|last=Kennedy|first=Heather|title=His show was inspired by a blazing barney|newspaper=The Australian|date=30 October 1964}} They opened a week later and were enthusiastically received, their performance of Macbeth in Camera also being filmed by ABC Television for later transmission.{{cite news|title=Australians film Lang's Macbeth In Camera|newspaper=The Stage|date=12 November 1964|page=11}} They then flew to New Zealand under the auspices of the [https://books.google.com/books?id=1dgOYAAACAAJ New Zealand Drama Council] and gave performances in both islands.{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=New Zealand Theatre|date= April 1964}}{{cite news|title='Macbeth In Camera' – Argument Which Grew Into Play|newspaper=Evening Post|date=30 April 1964}}

Back home in London, Harold Lang wrote a new piece for Amer, Hallam and himself, Man Speaking, an examination of English poetry.{{cite news|title=Making Sense of Poetry|newspaper=The Stage|date=4 November 1965|author=D.F.B.|page=13}} Amer would do the poems of John Donne, Hallam those of William Blake and Lang would do the poems of John Milton. Meanwhile Voyage Theatre played the City of London Festival and the King's Lynn Literature Festival,{{cite news|last=Marriott|first=Raymond B.|title=Macbeth in Camera|newspaper=The Stage|date=16 July 1964|page=13}} before flying off again to Australia, this time to play Sydney and Melbourne but also, at the Australian Arts Council's request, to tour extensively all over New South Wales and Victoria.{{cite news|title=Winter Tour|newspaper=The Stage|date=3 September 1964|page=20}} In December 1964, they performed at the Hong Kong Arts Festival then returned to Kathmandu in Nepal (this time at the King's request), India (Bombay), Turkey (Ankara and Istanbul) and Egypt (Cairo), then back to London. In May 1965 they travelled to Switzerland (Basel, Lausanne, Geneva and Vevey) and then back to the UK for performances in Hemel Hempstead and the Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre in London.{{cite news|title=Chit Chat: Limelight|newspaper=The Stage|date=14 October 1965|page=8}} In December of that year they toured to Turkey (Istanbul and Ankara) with Man Speaking and also to Thailand (Bangkok) en route to yet another return visit to New Zealand and Australia.

Voyage Theatre prepared itself for its longest engagement yet: they would spend six months visiting Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in New Zealand and then Sydney, Melbourne, Freemantle, Adelaide and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, with both pieces and including a third play A Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry.{{cite news|title=Festival of Arts for Australia|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 October 1965|page=15}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=7 April 1966|page=20}}{{cite news|title=Line-Up for 1966|newspaper=The Stage|date=7 April 1966|page=24}}{{cite news|title=The Adelaide Festival|newspaper=The Stage|date=7 April 1966|page=24}} In July 1966 the Filipino impresario Ralph Zulueta took them over and billed them as 'The Intellectual Beatles', opening in Manila to a packed Independent Theatre where the famous pop group had just played.{{cite news|title=Gala tonite|newspaper=The Manila Times|date=19 July 1966|page=6-A}}{{cite news|title=Voyage Theatre Cast Honored|newspaper=The Philippines Herald|date=17 July 1966}} In August 1967 there was a tour to the Israel Festival in Caesarea and in October one to Brussels, Belgium for two performances of both plays.{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=6 April 1967|page=16}}{{cite news|title=Festival Players|newspaper=The Stage|date=20 April 1967|page=8}} The following year in May 1968, Voyage Theatre travelled to the Berlin Festival, performed Epicœne, or The silent woman by Ben Jonson at the Oxford Playhouse in September and travelled to the Belfast Festival at Queen's in Northern Ireland in November. The following year brought a run of By-Play, a double bill of The Technicians and The Straight Man at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester.{{cite news|last=Hall|first=John|title=Fine short play|newspaper=The Times|date=7 February 1969}} In 1970 Toerien, Rubin & Firth (South Africa) asked Amer to play opposite Ralph Michael in Anthony Shaffer's play Sleuth in Johannesburg and Cape Town.{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=4 June 1970|page=1}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=20 August 1970|page=18}}{{cite news|title=Nicholas Amer|newspaper=The Stage|date=5 November 1970|page=15}}{{cite news|last=Tansley|first=Geoffrey|title='Sleuth'—Shaffer's Hit Whodunit—is Coming to Labia|newspaper=The Cape Times|date=2 December 1970}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=Femina|date=25 June 1970|page=67}}{{cite news|last=Baneshik|first=Percy|title=Thriller Foxes All the Way|newspaper=The Star|date=12 June 1970}} Amer accepted, and it ran for over a year.

Nicholas Amer was the last surviving member of the original four actors who made up Voyage Theatre. Harold Lang had died of a heart attack in Cairo in 1970,{{cite news|title=Harold Lang|newspaper=The Stage|date=19 November 1970|page=17}} Greville Hallam had "died tragically, aged 48" in London in 1982,{{cite news|last=Marriott|first=Raymond B.|title=Obituary: Greville Hallam|newspaper=The Stage|date=7 October 1982|page=32}} and Ralph Gruskin was killed in a street accident in Rome. The actors Lorne Cosette and David Kelsey had briefly been members following Ralph Gruskin's departure.{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=18 May 1967|page=17}} Amer, now in his mid-40s, had settled firmly in London with his partner and decided not to revive it.

In the 1970s, Amer continued his acting career in the UK, appearing in Molière's The Misanthrope at the Oxford Playhouse in 1973, as Solanio in The Merchant of Venice and the Head Waiter in Ferenc Molnár's The Wolf (Oxford, then London) in 1973/74.{{cite book|title=The wolf: a play - Ferenc Molnár - Google Books|isbn = 9780573015793|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3YiAAAAMAAJ|access-date=20 November 2013|last1 = Molnár|first1 = Ferenc|year = 1975}}{{cite news|title='The Merchant' at Oxford Playhouse|newspaper=The Stage|date=26 July 1973|page=21}}{{cite news|last=Dibb|first=Frank|title=Woodward and Dench in Molnar's 'Wolf'|newspaper=The Stage|date=20 September 1973|page=19}}{{cite news|last=Marriott|first=Raymond B.|title='The Wolf' in Town|newspaper=The Stage|date=1 November 1973|page=19}}{{cite news|last=Markus|first=Frank|title=Takeovers|newspaper=Sunday Telegraph|date=28 April 1974}} A Man For All Seasons (role of Chapuys) followed in Manchester with James Maxwell in the lead role.{{cite news|title=Manchester – 'A Man For All Seasons'|newspaper=The Stage|date=13 February 1975|page=24}} Then he played Captain Scott of the Antarctic in The Captain, written and devised by John Carroll and Royce Ryton, in the Overground Theatre, Kingston upon Thames in 1976,{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=10 July 1975|author=M.A.M.|page=9}}{{cite news|last=Tatlow|first=Peter|title=Blizzards on a summer night|newspaper=Borough News|date=4 July 1975|page=22}} followed by a tour of the UK with The Taming of the Shrew in 1977. He played Ross in Macbeth and also understudied Macbeth himself in a regional tour to Brighton and Cardiff.{{cite news|last=Blake|first=Douglas|title=Opened February 6|newspaper=The Stage|date=16 February 1978|page=1}} He played the title role of Julius Caesar at the Leeds Playhouse in 1979,{{cite news|last=Reyner|first=J. R. L.|title=On This Week At... Leeds|newspaper=The Stage|date=23 November 1978|page=21}} did a three-month season at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1980/81 with appearances in The Revenger's Tragedy, amongst others,{{cite news|last=Murphy|first=Marjorie Bates|title=The Revenger's Tragaedie|newspaper=The Stage|date=4 December 1980|page=15}}{{cite news|last=Chaillet|first=Ned|title=Bare but vital – The Revenger's Tragedy|newspaper=The Times|date=28 November 1980}} followed by performances of The Misanthrope at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Back in London he acted in Eugène Ionesco's technically challenging play The Lesson at the Bear & Staff pub theatre in Leicester Square in 1982,{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=The Stage|date=19 August 1982|page=31}} in George Bernard Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion with Penelope Keith at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 1983,{{cite news|title=Shaw's empire strikes back|newspaper=The Times|date=12 June 1982}} and played both Duke Frederick and Duke Senior in Shakespeare's As You Like It in Southampton the same year. Performances in When I Grow Too Old to Scream at the New End Theatre in Hampstead and A Little Bit on the Side (a Beryl Reid revue) followed on a short tour in and around London.{{cite news|last=Leech|first=Michael|title=Permutt's tale of the every day folk from pantoland|newspaper=The Stage|date=16 June 1983|page=8}}{{cite news|title=Dream of a transfer for a four-hander|newspaper=The Stage|date=11 August 1983|page=33}}{{cite news|last=Leech|first=Michael|title=Comedy with a twist-of-lemon bitterness|newspaper=The Stage|date=25 August 1983|page=12}}{{cite news|title=Wed, August 31|newspaper=The Stage|date=25 August 1983|page=10}}{{cite news|title=Beryl Reid – a star in a cloudy sky|newspaper=Farnham Herald|date=9 September 1983|author=A.H.}} In 1984 he played Burgess in Shaw's Candida in a Frank Hauser production for a tour of the United States which also had him playing King Duncan in Macbeth.{{cite news|last=Merritt|first=Robert|title='Candida' fared better than 'Macbeth'|newspaper=Richmond Times-Dispatch|date=16 November 1984}}{{cite news|last=Taylor|first=Markland|title='Old Vic' drama group performs in 'Candida'|newspaper=New Haven Register|date=21 November 1984}} He played the part of Otto alongside Mark Wynter in the musical Hans Andersen directed by Val May at Guildford Rep in 1986,{{cite news|last=Tatlow|first=Peter|title=All Hans together|newspaper=The Stage|date=3 January 1986|page=15}} followed by Shaw's Candida at the King's Head Theatre in Islington. He then appeared as Chaim Levi in Ron Elisha's Two opposite Amanda Boxer at the Roundhouse Downstairs, Chalk Farm in 1987.{{cite news|last=Rush|first=Pat|title=Offstage Downstairs – Two|newspaper=The Stage|date=5 February 1987|page=11}}{{cite news|title=Theatre Review – Two, Offstage|newspaper=Ham and High|date=30 January 1987|author=J.C.}}{{cite news|title=none|last=Pearce|first=Edward|newspaper=Daily Telegraph|date=30 January 1987}} A Man For All Seasons transferred from Chichester to London in 1988,{{cite news|title=Theatre Week – Monday, Oct 19|newspaper=The Stage|date=15 October 1987|page=8}}{{cite news|last=Worsley|first=John|title=An absorbing story about real people|newspaper=West Sussex Gazette|date=16 July 1987}}{{cite news|last=Wilkinson|first=Sue|title=The More the merrier|newspaper=Portsmouth News|date=9 July 1987}}{{cite news|last=Shelton|first=Robert|title=Heston, an actor for all reasons|newspaper=Evening Argus|date=26 January 1988|page=13}} with the film version being made the following year.{{cite news|title=Nicholas on the island|newspaper=Liverpool Echo|date=29 May 1989}} Lloyd George Knew My Father followed at St Edmund's Hall, Southwold in 1990,{{cite web|title=St Edmund's Hall, Southwold|url=http://adnams.co.uk/locations/st-edmunds-hall-southwold/|publisher=Adnams Southwold|access-date=20 November 2013}}{{cite news|title=Production News – Jill Freud opens her summer season at St Edmund's Hall, Southwold|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 June 1990|page=12}} followed by Robin Hood and Mad {{sic}} Marion and Herne the Hunter (musical) at the Canal Cafe Theatre, Kilburn Park in 1992,{{cite news|last=Braun|first=Eric|title=CANAL CAFE – Robin Hood and Mad Marion|newspaper=The Stage|date=18 January 1990|page=23}} The Kingfisher in Southwold in 1993, Shaw's Getting Married in Chichester the same year,{{cite news|title=Theatre Week – Wed, May 5|newspaper=The Stage|date=29 April 1993|page=11}}{{cite news|last=Rutherford|first=Malcolm|title='Shaw talk' on 'Getting married'|newspaper=Financial Times|date=7 May 1993}}{{cite news|last=Baker|first=Sandy|title=The long and winding road to marital compromise|newspaper=Farnham Herald|date=6 August 1993}} and Beast on the Moon by Richard Kalinoski,{{cite web|title=Richard Kalinoski - IMDb|url=http://www.richardkalinoski.com/|access-date=20 November 2013}} directed by Irina Brook at the Battersea Arts Centre in London in 1996.{{cite web|title=Beast on the Moon|url=http://www.bacarchive.org.uk/items/show/138|work=Battersea Arts Centre Digital Archive|publisher=Battersea Arts Centre|access-date=18 October 2013}} By the turn of the century, Amer was concentrating his professional acting talents on films and television.

In 1984 The Old Vic Company went on tour to several cities in the Eastern United States with both Macbeth and Candida. The company opened in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan Theatre on 6 November,{{cite web|title=UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance - Department of Theatre & Drama|url=http://www.music.umich.edu/departments/theatre/index.php|access-date=20 November 2013}} followed by performances in Iowa City, Urbana in Illinois, Dayton and Cleveland in Ohio, Clearwater in Florida, Richmond, Fairfax, Harrisonburg and Charlottesville in Virginia, the US Military Academy at West Point in New York State, ending at Proctor's Theatre, Schenectady, New York on 16 December.

Nicholas Amer's first film part was as a 'pot boy' in the 1950s' film The Mudlark (1950) with Alec Guinness and Irene Dunne. In the 1970s, film director Waris Hussein asked him to play the Spanish ambassador Chapuys in his production of Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) starring Keith Michell and Charlotte Rampling.{{cite web|title=Henry VIII and His Six Wives (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20150034191|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} His next film was in the English-speaking version of Al-risâlah (The Message) (1976),{{cite web|title=Al-risâlah (1976) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075143/|access-date=20 November 2013}} shot in Libya and starring Anthony Quinn.{{cite news|title=A desert war re-created for Mohammed|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=29 July 1976}}{{cite news|title=Taking risks on the camels|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=14 October 1977}}{{cite web|title=Al-RISALAH (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150275747|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Amer acted as voice coach to Behrouz Vossoughi, the leading Iranian actor at the time and playing opposite Quinn, in Caravans (1978) and travelled to Spain to play one of the Three Wise Men in The Nativity (1978) for 20th Century Fox.{{cite web|title=The Nativity (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077977/|access-date=20 November 2013}} The following year, Amer played the Admiral himself in Nelson's Touch (1979),{{cite web|title=Nelson's Touch (1979) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2783368/|access-date=20 November 2013}}{{cite web|title=Nelson's Touch (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150004127|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} and also went to France to appear in Lady Oscar (1979).{{cite web|title=LADY OSCAR (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150208894|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Back in London, he appeared in The Prince and the Pauper (1977) (released in the US the following year as Crossed Swords), with Rex Harrison and Mark Lester, and The Bitch (1979) with Joan Collins.{{cite web|title=The Bitch (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150047131|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}}

The next year saw him back in France to play the French poet Mallarmé in Gauguin the Savage (1980).{{cite web|title=Gauguin the Savage (TV Movie 1980) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080777/|access-date=20 November 2013}} In 1982 he was in Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) with Anthony Higgins and Janet Suzman,{{cite web|title=The Draughtsman's Contract (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150007508|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} and some years later he revisited the part of Chapuys, this time in A Man for All Seasons (1988) with Charlton Heston.{{cite web|title=A Man for all Seasons (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150372135|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Two years later, Heston asked him to play the role of Ben Gunn in a film remake of Treasure Island (1990) that he was planning, to be directed by his son Fraser.{{cite news|title=Actor lands part in Heston's latest film|newspaper=The News|date=20 June 1990|page=5}}{{cite news|last=McKerrow|first=Steve|title=TNT's 'Treasue Island' is true to the original|newspaper=The Evening Sun|date=22 January 1990|page=C5}}{{cite web|title=Treasure Island (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150345271|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} The role of Lord Chancellor in The Whipping Boy (1994) followed.{{cite web|title=The Whipping Boy (TV Movie 1994) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111698/|access-date=20 November 2013}} He appeared as Mr Heinrichson in the short film Benjamin's Struggle in 2005, followed by the role of Mr Archibald in the short comedy film Waiting for Gorgo in 2009.{{cite web|title=Benjamin's Struggle (2005) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463906/|access-date=20 November 2013}} Amer had a part written specially for him by film director Terence Davies and played the elderly, ailing Mr Elton in The Deep Blue Sea (2011), which starred Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston.{{cite news|title=Arts Interview|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 November 2011|page=20}}{{cite web|title=The Deep Blue Sea (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150776751|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} The same year also saw Amer in The Awakening (2011) with Rebecca Hall. A year later in Heroes Return (2012), directed by John Hillcoat for Camelot, Amer played the War veteran hero Private Jack Jennings returning to visit the graves of his fallen comrades in the Burmese jungle on the border with Thailand.{{cite web|title=Heroes Return (2012) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2787386/|access-date=20 November 2013}} His final appearances were as the grandfather in Segment "G is for Granddad" of the US anthology horror comedy film ABCs of Death 2 (2014) directed by Jim Hosking, as Oggie, a blind and elderly present-day resident of Cairnholm, in Tim Burton's dark fantasy film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and as Mr Abney in Max Van De Bank's film (short) adaptation of the M. R. James short story Lost Hearts released in 2018.

Experienced theatre actors were considered essential for television in the 1950s as programmes went out live in the early days of TV drama. Amer's first television part was in Emergency – Ward 10 (1957), the first hospital 'soap', as the naval officer brother of Dr Simon Forrester, played by Frederick Bartman.{{cite web|title=Frederick Bartman - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0058956/|access-date=20 November 2013}} Following this he appeared as the Italian opera singer Carlo Ponchi in Sing for Your Supper, the first ever TV musical for British television, written and composed by George Hall.{{cite news|title=Sing For Your Supper|date=13 June 1957|newspaper=The Stage|page=6}}{{cite news|title=Delicious Gastronomical Musical|newspaper=The Stage|date=27 June 1957|author=E.J.|page=6}} Michael Elliott cast him as Sebastian in his and Caspar Wrede's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1957). He also appeared in the TV play Arrow in the Air by Henry Brinton and Kenneth Robinson, directed by Robert Tronson for Associated-Rediffusion (AR-TV, later Rediffusion, London) (1957),{{cite news|title=Televiews|newspaper=The Stage|date=17 October 1957|author=E.J.|page=7}} and in the 1959 children's science fiction series The Red Grass, also for AR-TV.{{cite news|title=RED GRASS on the ISLANDS|newspaper=The Stage|date=8 January 1959|page=7}} In 1960 he did The Roving Reasons and also a comedy for children's TV called The Old Pull 'n Push,{{cite web|title=The Roving Reasons (TV Series 1960– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210445/|access-date=20 November 2013}}{{cite web|title=The Old Pull 'n Push (TV Series 1960– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1601982/|access-date=20 November 2013}} which proved so popular he did The Return of the Old Pull 'n Push the following year.{{cite web|title=Old Pull 'n Push Episode 1 Confusion at Cloudhurst (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20150485342|work=British Film Institute|access-date=1 November 2013}}{{cite web|title=The Return of the Old Pull 'n Push Episode 1 (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150485344|work=British Film Institute|access-date=1 November 2013}} Appearances in The Pursuers (1961),{{cite web|title=The Pursuers (TV Series 1961– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159200/|access-date=20 November 2013}} The Avengers (1963),{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Dave|title=The Avengers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W0MNAQAAMAAJ|access-date=16 April 2012|date=25 April 1983|publisher=ITV Books in association with Michael Joseph|isbn=9780907965091}} and a BBC TV production of Hamlet (playing Rosencrantz), small character parts in Parbottle Speaking,{{cite web|title=Parbottle Speaking (TV Movie 1962) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499541/|access-date=20 November 2013}} Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls (1965),{{cite web|title=For Whom the Bell Tolls Part 4 The Bridge (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20150461516|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} The Root of All Evil? (1969) and Disciple of Death (1972) followed.{{cite web|title=The Root of All Evil? (TV Series 1968–1969) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1346933/|access-date=20 November 2013}}{{cite web|title=Disciple of Death (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20150154496|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}}

Then in 1976 Jack Pulman adapted I, Claudius for television from the novels of Robert Graves, and Amer had the part of Messalina's lover Mnester specially written for him and played opposite Sheila White.{{cite web|title=I, Claudius Episode 11 A God in Colchester (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150050518|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} In 1977 he acted in Spaghetti Two-Step,{{cite web|title=Spaghetti Two-step (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150286299|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} in 1979 in an episode of The Professionals, in 1982, Whoops Apocalypse, Pig in the Middle{{cite web|title=Ships That Pass in the Night, Stopping (Original) Pig in the Middle[04/10/81] (Alternative)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150415473|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}}{{cite web|title=The Native Hue of Resolution (Original) Pig in the Middle[04/03/83] (Alternative)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150582925|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} and Jemima Shore Investigates,{{cite web|title=Jemima Shore Investigates (TV Series 1983– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161154/|access-date=20 November 2013}} and in 1984, The Tragedy of Coriolanus (playing the Aedile) for the BBC's celebration of Shakespeare.{{cite web|title=Coriolanus (Original), The Tragedy of Coriolanus (Alternative)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150103159|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Following these he appeared in Tender Is the Night (1985),{{cite web|title=Tender Is the Night (TV Mini-Series 1985) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088626|access-date=20 November 2013}} Crossroads (1985), Artists and Models (1986),{{cite web|title=Artist's (sic) and Models (TV Series 1986– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1691885/|access-date=20 November 2013}} playing the middle-aged Casanova,{{cite web|title=The Passing Show (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150119685|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} and as a desk clerk in If Tomorrow Comes,{{cite web|title=If Tomorrow Comes (TV Mini-Series 1986) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090455/|access-date=20 November 2013}} filmed in Nice (1986), Paradise Postponed (1986),{{cite web|title=Paradise Postponed Episode 4 Living in the Past (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20150269132|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Love and Marriage (1986),{{cite web|title=Let's Run Away to Africa (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150210279|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} The Charmer (1987), Bust (1987),{{cite web|title=Write Off (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150138628|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Fortunes of War (1987) (shot in Yugoslavia with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson),{{cite web|title=Fortunes of War Episode 1 (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150330593|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Streets Apart (1988),{{cite web|title=Streets Apart (TV Series 1988–1989) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094557/|access-date=20 November 2013}} Eldorado (soap opera set in Spain) (1993), the TV film Knights: El Cid, Soldier of Fortune (1997),{{cite web|title=Knights: El Cid, Soldier of Fortune (TV Movie 1997) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1922635/|access-date=20 November 2013}} an episode of Jonathan Creek (1999),{{cite web|title=Ghost's Forge (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150566699|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}} Arrows of Desire (Channel 4 poetry programme) directed by Colin Still (2002),{{cite web|title=Arrows of Desire (TV Series 2002– ) - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428088/|access-date=20 November 2013}} Grange Hill (2002), Story Teller (BBC children's TV) (2002), Silent Witness (2002), My Dad's the Prime Minister (2003), ChuckleVision (2004), Merseybeat (2004) and as Arthur Leggott in an episode ('Midsomer Rhapsody') of Midsomer Murders (2005).{{cite web|title=Midsomer Rhapsody (Original)|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150706222|work=British Film Institute|access-date=2 November 2013}}{{cite news|title=none|newspaper=Radio Times|date=2 October 2005}} His final TV appearance was as Prospero Santacroce in Borgia in 2011, which was shot in Prague.{{cite web|title=Borgia (2011–)|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1736341/|work=IMDb|access-date=2 November 2013}}

In 1999 Amer played the part of Old Thorny in the Jacobean play The Witch of Edmonton for the Open University, directed by Jenny Bardwell,{{cite web|title=Jenny Bardwell|url=http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jenny-bardwell/63/51/a81|publisher=LinkedIn|access-date=20 November 2013}} and some years later played Pop in the radio play A Walk to the Paradise Garden (2001) by Terence Davies for BBC Radio 3.{{cite news|last=Petty|first=Moira|title=Moral drama is in the bag|newspaper=The Stage|date=18 October 2001|page=29}}

As well as his acting career, Nicholas Amer directed student productions at various London drama schools, including I Am a Camera by John Van Druten at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, Southeast London in 1980.{{cite news|last=Russell|first=Clifford W.|title=Rose Bruford|newspaper=The Stage|date=7 August 1980|page=28}} He also directed Thom Delaney's one man show The Importance of Being Irish (1978) at the Roundhouse Downstairs in Chalk Farm, London.{{cite news|last=Marriott|first=Raymond B.|title=The Importance of Being Irish|newspaper=The Stage|date=12 October 1978|page=22}} This collection of modern Irish poetry interspersed with songs and anecdotes later transferred to the Young Vic in London and then to a tour of Soweto and other black townships in South Africa in 1979.{{cite news|last=Trew|first=Betty|title=It's October for the Irish|newspaper=Rand Daily Mail|date=29 May 1979}} Amer also directed The Sea Pearls black theatre company in The Unfaithful Woman by Sam Mangwane. In 1984, he directed the South African actress Bess Finney in Ellen Terry – The Harum Scarum Girl,{{cite web|title=Bess Finney - IMDb|website=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0278266/|access-date=20 November 2013}}{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ellen Terry the Harum-Scarum Girl|url=http://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Ellen_Terry_the_Harum-Scarum_Girl|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre and Performance|publisher=ESAT|access-date=22 October 2013}}{{cite encyclopedia|title=Bess Finney|url=http://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php/Bess_Finney|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre and Performance|publisher=ESAT|access-date=22 October 2013}}{{cite news|last=Absalom|first=Steve|title=The South African debate: Finney bringing first hand experience|newspaper=The Stage|date=5 July 1984|page=7}} written originally for Judi Dench by Montague Haltrecht, at both the Isle of Man Festival and the Edinburgh Festival.

Amer began teaching in 1960 at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then at the Webber Douglas Drama School.{{cite news|title=Successful Students|newspaper=The Stage|date=12 July 1956|page=8}}{{cite news|title=Webber-Douglas Competition|newspaper=The Stage|date=11 July 1957|page=10}} He also taught at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and later at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, Australia. Along with his teaching duties, he also gave lectures at the Pocket Theatre in Cairo, Egypt.{{cite book|title=Arab Observer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nssvAAAAMAAJ|access-date=16 April 2012|year=1966|publisher=General Organization of Publications|page=50}}

Amer had a long involvement with, and was Drama Adviser to, the Ernest George White Society & School of Sinus Tone where the late Arthur D. Hewlett helped him understand Ernest White's theory of controlling the voice from the sinuses.{{cite web|title=Ernest George White Society|url=http://www.egwhitesociety.org.uk/|access-date=20 November 2013}}

Travelling the world as a Shakespearean actor and a bachelor for two years was a welcome distraction from the problems of settling down. Marriage and family life had never been an option as Amer believed that it would kill his dream of devoting his life to Shakespeare. In 1965, after his second overseas tour, Amer went to the Old Vic to see the Berliner Ensemble perform The Little Mahagonny. It was there at the after-show party that he met up again with Montague Haltrecht, the man who would become his life partner, a Jewish prize-winning novelist and a BAFTA nominee. They had first met each other briefly eight years earlier while Amer was appearing in Love for Love at the Theatre Royal, Windsor in 1957. They decided to live together, and in September 2003, following the setting up of the London Partnerships Register by Ken Livingstone two years earlier, Britain's first register for same-sex couples, they decided to join. Six years later, after the law governing same-sex couples changed as a result of the government's passing of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, they decided to take advantage of the new law. Montague Haltrecht died of cancer in March 2010, at home in Amer's arms.{{cite web|last=Wardle|first=Irving|title=Montague Haltrecht obituary|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/apr/20/montague-haltrecht-obituary|work=The Guardian|date=20 April 2010|access-date=25 September 2013}}

Having suffered a fall at home in January 2017, Amer went to live at Denville Hall actors retirement home, where he spent the rest of his life, and died there peacefully in his sleep on November 17 2019 at the age of 96.{{cite news|title=Obituaries|newspaper=The Stage|date=28 November 2019|page=40}}

Having survived the War and become an actor, Amer's approach to his profession was, in a word, reverential. He regarded acting as the most glorious job any servant of the public could aspire to, and he wanted to devote himself to it. His early successes, and the awards and honours they brought him, confirmed him in his belief that he had survived the war in order to dedicate his life to the works of William Shakespeare. As his career on the professional stage progressed, his common sense told him that to succeed in this he would also have to be very lucky. And indeed, after John Gielgud invited him to join his Gielgud Company at the Lyric Theatre he felt he needed no further confirmation that he was meant for Shakespeare.

• UK Government grant to attend the Webber Douglas School 1945
• Webber Douglas Drama School Scholarship (declined in favour of UK Government grant) 1945
• The Webber Cup, presented by Sir Donald Wolfit 1947
• Best Foreign Actor Award, Buenos Aires Award Ceremony (co-recipient with Harold Lang, Greville Hallam and Ralph Gruskin) 1963

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• {{IMDb name|id=0024628|name=Nicholas Amer}}

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Category:English male stage actors

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Category:1923 births

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Category:Male actors from Birkenhead

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