orig. Cecil Antonio Richardson
born June 5, 1928, Shipley, Yorkshire, Eng.
died Nov. 14, 1991, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.
British director.
With the English Stage Co. he won acclaim with John Osborne 's Look Back in Anger (1956), and he led the company in reinterpreting classic plays and in productions of Eugène Ionesco and Samuel Beckett . His experimental productions stimulated a renewal of creative vitality on the British stage during the 1950s. He directed The Entertainer (1958) and A Taste of Honey (1960) on Broadway. He and Osborne formed a film company (1958), which produced screen versions of Osborne's plays as well as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and Tom Jones (1963, Academy Award). His later films include The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Ned Kelly (1970), and Blue Sky (1993). He was married to Vanessa Redgrave ; their daughters, Miranda and Joely Richardson, are both film actresses.