R.I.P. Patrick Garland

[Reza]

West End Theatre Director Garland Dies At 78

The husband of 1960s TV star Alexandra Bastedo was "an urbane and charming man" who endured a long illness with great fortitude.

4:30pm UK, Saturday 20 April 2013

Award-winning theatre and film director Patrick Garland has died at the age of 78 after a long illness.

Garland was married to the actress Alexandra Bastedo, who was at his bedside at Worthing Hospital in West Sussex when he died.

Bastedo, who married Garland at Chichester Cathedral in 1980, was best known for playing a glamorous scientist in the hit TV series The Champions in the late 1960s.

She described him as a "wonderful man" who was a staunch supporter of the animal rescue charity she runs from their home.

Garland was the only director ever to have had four plays running in the West End at the same time and worked with a glittering list of names from stage and film.

They included Rex Harrison on Broadway in a revival of My Fair Lady, about whom he also wrote a best-selling biography, The Incomparable Rex.

He won a Golden Globe for his 1971 film The Snow Goose which was also nominated for a Bafta and an Emmy.

Twice appointed artistic director of the Chichester Festival, Garland raised money to build and open the theatre's second space, The Minerva Theatre.

The director and producer began his career as an actor but quickly found a home at the BBC where he directed programmes for the late Huw Wheldon working alongside Melvyn Bragg and Ken Russell.

With former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, he also founded Poetry International and wrote several distinguished books of poetry himself.

Regarded as an urbane and charming man, he was said to have had great skill in directing and coaxing award-winning performances from actors.

Ms Bastedo said: "Patrick had been ill for a long time but bore all of his troubles with great fortitude.

"He was a wonderful man, brilliant with people of all types, and life will never be the same. There were always comings and goings at the house because of my rescue charity which he was always happy to put himself behind."

Roderick Gilchrist, a close friend for many years, said: "Patrick was not only supremely talented, he was one of the funniest men I knew.

"He had a brilliant fund of hilarious backstage stories from a lifetime in the theatre and was a better mimic than Rory Bremner."