Actor left Denver legacy

Legend performed, taught, staged his own play while here

By Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 03:00 p.m., March 28, 2008
Updated 05:33 p.m., March 28, 2008

Denver Center Theater Company

In The Dresser, Tony Church performs with Jamie Horton, left, and Peggy Schoditsch in 1996.

The death of veteran actor Tony Church last Tuesday at the age of 77 has left a palpable air of sadness at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

To members of the center's theater company, with whom he worked for 14 years, Tony Church was more than just an actor. He was an institution.

Church died Tuesday at a London nursing home.

James Anthony Church was born May 11, 1930, in London. He was a founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he performed with such legends as Laurence Olivier, Diana Rigg, Rosemary Harris and director Sir Peter Hall.

During his career, he acted in 31 of Shakespeare's 37 plays.

Church made his professional debut in 1953 in Hall's first professional production, Henry IV. Seven years later he joined Hall as a founding member of the RSC, and four years after that toured the United States in two shows at the invitation of Denver Center founder and chairman emeritus, Donald Seawell.

"The plays were King Lear and The Comedy of Errors," Seawell said in a statement issued upon his friend's death. "Tony had a leading role in each. Recently that production of King Lear was overwhelmingly voted by members of the RSC as the finest production in the history of the RSC."

In 1975, Seawell invited Church to join the Denver Center's resident acting company. From 1989 to 1996 Church also served as dean of the National Conservatory Theatre, the DCTC's renowned acting school, which trains a select 30 students each year.

Before arriving in Denver, Church served as Director of Drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in England.

The actor had a special bond with students, observed Daniel Renner, current dean of the NCT.

"Tony was just an extraordinary man, he was a titan. Having been a founding member of the RSC, he brought a technical craft and joy of craft. He certainly raised the standards. He brought people like Patrick Stewart in to teach or do guest lectures. Everyone in the world knew Tony and loved and respected him."

Former colleagues have been quick to praise his talent.

"His personal artistic discipline commanded the complete respect of his colleagues - in fact they adored his high energy, his outrageous stories and the loving support he gave to each of his fellow artists," said Donovan Marley, former artistic director of the theater company. "His body of work is a remarkable legacy and I - along with the rest of his Denver fans - was privileged to share a small corner of it."

The plays Mr. Church appeared in at the Denver Center included Love's Labours Lost, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Winter's Tale, The Elevation of Thieves, Travels With My Aunt and The Dresser.

He also wrote and performed in his own play at the center, Give 'em a Bit of Mystery: Shakespeare and the Old Tradition.

He retired from the DCTC at age 73 when he became too ill to work.

In 1998 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Denver.

As a child in World War II London, Church mastered the importance of imagination long before he took to the stage.

"Everything then was the radio," Church said in a 1996 interview with the Rocky. "We listened to the radio constantly. Radio people were more real than real life. I heard radio adaptations of Dickens and Melville. That's how I learned to appreciate them."

In another interview, Church remarked on his fondness for the Denver Center and for life in Colorado: "The facilities here are as fine as I've ever seen, and the standards of production are as high as the Royal Shakespeare Company's."

Church's film and television work included roles in Krull, Tess, Edward and Mrs. Simpson and The Gentle Killers.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Gladstone, and three children from a previous marriage, all of London.