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Concept
Murray Melvin
Summary
Murray Melvin (10 August 1932 – 14 April 2023) was an English actor. He was best known for his acting work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).
Melvin was born on 10 August 1932, in St. Pancras, London, the son of Hugh Victor Melvin and Maisie Winifred, née Driscoll. Melvin left his north London secondary school at the age of fourteen unable to master fractions but as head prefect, a qualification he said he gained by always having clean fingernails and well-combed hair. He started work as an office boy for a firm of travel agents off Oxford Street.
To help channel the energies of the young after the disturbing times of the war, his parents had helped to found a youth club in Hampstead, financed by the Co-operative Society of which they were longstanding members. A drama section formed with Melvin its most enthusiastic participant.
A short-lived job followed as an import and export clerk in a shipping office, during which he inadvertently exported quantities of goods to destinations that had not ordered them. This was followed by two unhappy years of National Service in the Royal Air Force (his father had served in the RAF during the Second World War).
Melvin was employed as clerk and secretary to the director of the Royal Air Force sports board at the Air Ministry, then based at Adastral House in Kingsway. Knowing nothing about sport, he considered his clean fingernails, well combed hair and his father's service had done the trick.
Melvin attended evening classes at the nearby City Literary Institute and studied drama, mime and classical ballet. During an extended lunch break from the Ministry, he applied to Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and auditioned on stage singing and dancing for Littlewood and Gerry Raffles. On being asked to create a character he knew from life, he impersonated a rather rotund director of the sports board.
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