25 Jul 2022
I loved David Warner in ‘Providence’, ‘Masada’, ‘The Omen’ and ‘The Man with Two Brains’. So when he was performing in Major Barbara on Broadway, I took the opportunity to go backstage after the show to see if he would be willing to meet me – and he hosted me in his dressing room for an hour. To my astonishment, at one point a famous American actor knocked on his dressing room door and David apologised that he was meeting a new English friend and wouldn’t be able to chat. Two months later I was working late in my office and finally escaped onto Regent Street at 9pm, walking straight into David as he was passing on the pavement. He remembered our Broadway meeting and suggested we go for a drink. In return I invited him to dinner a month later and had a dreamlike evening chatting with a man I had admired for so long. When he found out our company patron was Paul Scofield, he asked if I would be willing to pass on an apology for his behaviour in Stratford when he was giving his acclaimed performance of Hamlet to Paul’s Claudius. There was such a humility, interest, engagement and honesty about the man. Along with all the pleasure and inspiration he gave me in his stage, films and television work – meeting the man himself was one of my life’s greatest delights.