Peter Ashmore (director)

Peter Ashmore (born London 1916: died Cork, Ireland 1997) was a theatre director and actor. Between the years 1946 and 1956 Ashmore appeared as an actor and director in successful plays in London's West End and on Broadway. He drew from such players as Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness, Wendy Hiller, Mai Zetterling, Robert Morley, Brenda Bruce, Frederick Valk, and Harcourt Williams.

Life and career

Ashmore was the son of William Oliver Ashmore, undertaker, and his wife Marie Cavaliero. After attending The Central School of Speech and Drama, Swiss Cottage, Ashmore made his professional debut in 1934 in Windfall at the Embassy Theatre, London. He followed this by performing in Romeo and Juliet at Stratford-upon-Avon and featured in various productions at the Embassy, Phoenix, Mercury and Little theatres. He was a conscientious objector during the Second World War and made his reputation as a director at the Oxford Playhouse during the years 1941 and 1946. The actors in the company included Pamela Brown, Yvonne Mitchell, Isabel Dean and Rosalie Crutchley who was to become his wife. Noted productions during this period were Hedda Gabler with Pamela Brown and Uncle Vanya in which Ashmore played Vanya to Rosalie Crutchley's Sonia.

In 1946 Kitty Black, an agent working for Binkie Beaumont's H M Tennent theatrical management company, persuaded him to return to London, having been impressed with his directing at the Oxford Playhouse repertory theatre.