Richard Easton

Classically trained actor Richard Easton honed his most enduring reputation as a theatrical performer. A native of Montréal, Québec, Easton grew up as the son of a civil engineer and began prolific stage work in the late 1940s, in dozens of productions including King Lear, Measure For Measure, Othello and many other fixtures from the classical repertoire, with (as that brief list indicates) the strongest emphasis on Shakespeare; various ensembles with which the thespian became affiliated over the years included the Stratford Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and the Association of Performing Artists' Repertory Company. Easton also did extensive television work in Great Britain, with a particularly memorable run as Captain Stapley on Doctor Who, then placed a heightened emphasis on features in the late 1980s; the actor's cinematic accomplishments include teaming up with fellow Shakespeare veteran Kenneth Branagh twice, for Henry V (1989) and Dead Again (1991), starring opposite Sean Connery and F. Murray Abraham in Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester (2000), and playing Howard Givings in Sam Mendes's period drama of 1950s suburban dysfunction, Revolutionary Road (2008).

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide