Harry Towb
Northern Irish actor (1925-2009)
Harry Towb (27 July 1925 – 24 July 2009) was an actor from Northern Ireland.
Early life and career
Towb was born in Larne, County Antrim, to a Russian-Jewish father and an Irish-Jewish mother; he once claimed he was the only Jew ever born in Larne. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother and sister to north Belfast, where he attended the Finiston School and Technical College. He enlisted in the British Army during World War II and managed a military canteen, but was discharged once it emerged that he had lied about his age.
Theatre
He then appeared on stage with a touring theatre company in Ireland, and in repertory theatre in England. His first London appearance was in 1950 in The Gentle Gunman. After a number of years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he joined the Royal National Theatre company in 1979, first playing Charley in Death of a Salesman. There, in 1982, he appeared in Richard Eyre's productions of The Beggar's Opera, Guys and Dolls, and Bertolt Brecht's Schweyk in the Second World War, as well as The Prince of Homburg, directed by John Burgess.
Towb regularly appeared in musical theatre including a role in the musical adaptation of Bar Mitzvah Boy. He performed in the 1983 original London production of the hit stage musical Little Shop of Horrors, based on Roger Corman's low-budget horror movie, which starred the original American lead Ellen Greene.
The public source identifies “Harry Towb” as northern Irish actor (1925-2009). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harry, Towb and Northern.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5414158. VIAF identifies the subject as 121245509. The Library of Congress control number is no2010082141. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 2009, 1950 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harry Towb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.