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Basil Dean

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Basil Dean
CBE
Born
Basil Herbert Dean

27 September 1888
Croydon,England
Died22 April 1978 (aged 89)
Marylebone,London, England
Occupations
  • Actor
  • writer
  • theatre producer
  • stage director
  • film producer
  • film director
Years active1906–1961

Basil Herbert DeanCBE(27 September 1888 – 22 April 1978) was an English actor, writer, producer and director in the theatre and in cinema. He founded theLiverpool Repertory Companyin 1911 and in theFirst World War,after organising unofficial entertainments for his comrades in the army, he was appointed do so officially. After the war he produced and directed mostly in theWest End.He staged premieres of plays by writers includingJ. M. Barrie,Noël Coward,John Galsworthy,Harley Granville-BarkerandSomerset Maugham.He produced nearly 40 films, and directed 16, mainly in the 1930s, with stars includingGracie Fields.

Together withLeslie Henson,Dean set up and ran theEntertainments National Service Association,or ENSA, in 1939 to provide a wide range of entertainment for British armed forces personnel during theSecond World War.After the war he resumed his West End career successfully but without regaining his pre-war dominance.

Life and career

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Early years

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Dean was born on 27 September 1888 inCroydon,Surrey, the younger son and second of the four children of Harding Hewar Dean (1855–1942), a cigarette manufacturer, and his wife, Elizabeth Mary Winton. He was educated atWhitgift Grammar School,Croydon.[1]According to his entry inWho's Who in the Theatrehe was originally intended for a career in the diplomatic service,[2]but he trained as an "analytical scientist" before working for two years on theLondon Stock Exchange.[3]

After appearing in amateur theatricals,[4]Dean made his first professional appearance on the stage at the Opera House,Cheltenhamin September 1906, as Trip inThe School for Scandal.He toured in Shakespeare and other plays and then he joinedAnnie Horniman's new repertory company in Manchester in 1907, remaining with it for four years in a wide range of plays from the 16th to the 20th centuries.[2]During this period he made his first London appearance when the Horniman company gave a two-week repertory season at theCoronet Theatrein June 1909.[2][5]

In 1911 Dean directed an experimental theatre season inLiverpool.That year he became the first director of theLiverpool Repertory Theatre(later the Playhouse), where he put on plays byJohn Galsworthy,Harold Brighouse,andHarley Granville-Barker.At the same time he was technical adviser for stage-construction at theBirmingham Repertory Theatre,which opened in 1913.[3]In 1913Sir Herbert Treeappointed him assistant stage director atHis Majesty's Theatre,London. Tree observed, "This young man intends to get on, either by hook or by crook – it is to be hoped by the former".[3]

1914 to 1939

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In 1914, Dean married Esther Van Gruisen (1891–1983). The marriage, which lasted until 1925, when it was dissolved, produced three sons, one of them the musicologistWinton Dean;another became a judge.[1][6]On the outbreak of theFirst World Warin 1914, Dean joined theCheshire Regiment.While based atCatterick Camphe took part in shows to entertain his comrades, and developed an arrangement under which each battalion in the camp contributed to the building and running of a single "garrison theatre" for the whole camp, on an impressive, near-professional scale.[7]

He was gazetted captain in 1916, and in January 1917 he was transferred to theWar Officein London to head the entertainment branch of the Navy and Army Canteen Board (later theNavy, Army and Air Force Institutes),[2]with control of fifteen theatres and ten touring companies.[3]

After the war Dean launched himself as a producer in London, forming a syndicate, Reandean, with a business partner, Alec Lionel Rea. They leased theSt Martin's Theatre,and after a poor start, with two failures, they achieved a strong success with Galsworthy'stragi-comedyThe Skin Game.Reandean mounted a series of productions, including plays bySomerset Maugham,J. M. BarrieandClemence Dane.

elaborate middle-Eastern stage setting with huge cast of characters, including warriors, dancing girls etc.
Hassan,1923

Among Dean's successes was a stage version ofJames Elroy Flecker's narrative poemHassan,of which Dean was co-adapter for the stage as a spectacular exotic drama, with music byFrederick Deliusand choreography byLéonide Massine.[1]Dean had tried to interest Tree in staging the piece, but the costs were prohibitive. The eventual production, in 1923, made its mark, and Dean was called on to stage revivals in later years.[2]

Another conspicuous success wasThe Constant Nymph(1926) byMargaret Kennedy,but Dean's handling of the casting was an example of the bullying and ruthlessness that made him many enemies in the theatrical profession.[1]Having given the leading role to the youngJohn Gielgud,but then finding thatNoël Cowardwas available, Dean demoted Gielgud to understudy, despite the latter's unassailable contractual right to play the part. Dean's determination to have his own way made him, asThe Timesput it, "something of a byword in theWest Endthrough his dictatorial methods at rehearsal ".[3]Biographies of performers from Gielgud,Katharine CornellandVivien LeightoGracie Fields,Alan NapierandBarry Morserefer to Dean's bullying and cruelty and his unflattering nicknames: "Bloody Basil", "The Basilisk" and "Bastard Basil".[8]

Gielgud's biographer,Jonathan Croall,wrote of Dean:

His glittering productions were slick, meticulous and imaginative, with brilliantly realistic sets, state-of-the-art lighting and efficient teamwork. Tall, massive and bespectacled, "Bastard Basil" was a sadistic bully, and the most hated man in the theatre. In rehearsals he created a regime of fear, reducing actors to tears with his sarcasm and abuse. Yet he often drew excellent performances from his victims, and because his productions were usually successful, actors put up with his tyranny.[9]

In 1924, Dean took on the joint managing directorship withAlfred Buttof theTheatre Royal, Drury Lanewith the aim, much mocked at the time, of establishing a national theatre there.[1][3]The opening production,London Life,by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock, failed. One critic wrote that the play was unworthy of its authors and the production unworthy of Dean.[10]A Midsummer Night's Dream,was successful, but, according toThe Times,"did his reputation as a director of poetic drama no good". His colleagues' insistence on importing an American musical provoked his resignation within twelve months.[3]

In 1925, Dean married Lady Mercy Greville (3 April 1904 - 21 November 1968; known by her acting name, Nancie Parsons), daughter ofFrancis Greville, 5th Earl of Warwickand his wife, the formerDaisy Maynard.Dean and Parsons had one daughter, Frances Elizabeth Tessa, before their marriage was dissolved in 1933.[1]

In 1929, after he had directed Coward'sThe VortexonBroadway,introducing Coward as an actor to American audiences, and three Coward plays in London –Easy Virtue,The Queen Was in the ParlourandSirocco,the last of which was a conspicuous failure – Dean and Rea dissolved their partnership.[1]

Dean became chairman and joint managing director of Associated Talking Pictures (laterEaling Studios) in 1929. During the 1930s, his career alternated between cinema and theatre. For a while his films did well, particularly those starring Gracie Fields, but his flair for theatrical staging did not extend to the cinema, where his work as director was uninspired: the biographer Alan Strachan writes, "most of his films are inert with next to no rhythm or comedic flair",[11]and Fields's biographer David Bret writes that Dean was "positively renowned for his complete lack of sense of humour".[12]In the late 1930s, Dean fell out with Ealing Studios, where his colleagues felt that he was neglecting films in favour of his theatrical work; he was obliged to resign.[1]

In 1934 Dean married the Canadian-bornVictoria Hopper(1909–2007). They had no children. This, his third and final marriage, was dissolved in 1948.[1]

Second World War and ENSA

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As the Second World War loomed, Dean published his suggestions on how the entertainments industry could help to sustain the morale of the civilian public and members of the armed forces when war came.[1]For this he was derided by some colleagues, such asGeorge Blackof theLondon Palladium,who were convinced there would be no war.[13]Dean ignored his critics and formed an alliance with the comedian and theatre ownerLeslie Henson,who had been a leading figure in entertainments for the troops in the First World War.[13]

When the war started, Dean, after lobbying the government, was appointed director of the entertainment branch of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, which was named ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association).[n 1]Drury Lane was requisitioned as the organisation's headquarters.[15]Dean worked with Henson and other experts in their theatrical or musical spheres, including Black (now firmly behind Dean's ideas),Lena Ashwell,Harold Holt,Jack Hylton,Sir Harry LauderandDame Sybil Thorndike,organising entertainment in Britain and overseas for the troops and civilians throughout the war.[16]

Dean's biographerJames Roose-Evanswrites, "during six and a half years more than 80 per cent of the entertainments industry gave [ENSA] service in innumerable performances of plays, revues, and concerts".[1]The Timesrecorded, "Over two and a half million performances took place before over 300 million men and women in the forces and industry".[3][n 2]Richard Llewellyn,Dean's assistant at the time, wrote of him:

Had Dean been a general he would have been properly acknowledged for his work with ENSA. Without Basil Dean, it would never have been. He was a martinet, a son-of-a-bitch bastard, a monolith, a kindly – sometimes – tyrant, a bully, but he knew what he wanted, and others didn't. His was the influence, the hand on the wheel, that never faltered.[17]

Later years

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After the war Dean resumed his own activities in the West End and elsewhere, but never regained the pre-eminence he had enjoyed in the 1930s.[3]Among his post-war productions wereJ. B. Priestley'sAn Inspector Callsfor theOld Viccompany at its temporary home at theNew Theatrein October 1946 andThe Wizard of Ozfor the Christmas season of 1946–47. He organised the first British Repertory Theatre Festival at theSt James's Theatre(1948) in which the repertory companies of Liverpool,Sheffield,Birmingham andBristolwere represented.[18]His productions overseas includedHassanfor the National Theatre Organisation of South Africa (1950) and for Dublin International Drama Festival (1960) andGraham Greene'sThe Heart of the Matter,Boston (1950).[18]

For the West End, Dean adapted and directedThe Diary of a Nobody,with Henson as Mr Pooter (1954); he stagedMichael Redgrave's adaptation ofHenry James'sThe Aspern Papers(1959). His last London production wasOut of This World,an adaptation of an Italian comedy, in 1960.[18]For his last production of all he returned to the Liverpool Playhouse in 1961 to directThe Importance of Being Earnestfor the golden jubilee of the company he had founded.[18]

In his later years Dean wrote a good deal, including an official history of ENSA and two volumes of autobiography.[3]He died at his flat inMarylebone,London on 22 April 1978, aged 89.[1]A memorial service was held for him atSt James's, Piccadilly.[6]

Cinema work

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Producer

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Director

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Notes, references and sources

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Notes

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  1. ^The organisation was originally to have been called the Actors' National Service Association, but Henson pointed out that in that case, he and Dean would be accused of knowing all the ANSAs, and there were in any case musicians and other performers besides actors engaged by ENSA.[14]
  2. ^The estimated number of people attending ENSA performances varies widely, from 3 million (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) to 300 million (The Times).[1][3]

References

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  1. ^abcdefghijklmRoose–Evans, James."Dean, Basil Herbert (1888–1978)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 2 September 2021
  2. ^abcdeParker, pp. 515–516
  3. ^abcdefghijk"Mr Basil Dean",The Times,24 April 1978, p. 16
  4. ^"Popular Entertainments",Croydon Guardian,9 December 1905, p. 8; "A Happy Half-Holiday",Croydon Guardian,10 February 1906, p. 3
  5. ^"Theatres",The Times,10 June 1909, p. 10
  6. ^ab"Memorial service",The Times,23 June 1978, p. 16
  7. ^Merriman, p. 3
  8. ^Croall, p. 85; Collier, p. 101; Strachan, p. 30; Bret, p. 52; Napier, p. 135; and Morse, p. 77
  9. ^Croall, p. 85
  10. ^"The Truth About the Shows",The People,8 June 1924, p. 4
  11. ^Strachan, p. 30
  12. ^Bret, p. 37
  13. ^abMerriman, p. 2
  14. ^Merriman, p. 5
  15. ^Merriman, p. 12
  16. ^Merriman, p. 13
  17. ^Quotedin Fawkes, pp. 187–188
  18. ^abcdParker, Gaye and Herbert, pp. 619–621

Sources

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  • Bret, David (1996).Gracie Fields: The Authorised Biography.Bath: Windsor.ISBN978-0-74-517982-7.
  • Collier, Richard (1986).Make-Believe: The Magic of International Theatre.New York: Dodd, Mead.ISBN978-0-39-608645-1.
  • Croall, Jonathan (2011).John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star.London: Bloomsbury.ISBN978-1-40-816671-0.
  • Fawkes, Richard (1978).Fighting for a Laugh: Entertaining the British and American Armed Forces, 1939–1946.London: Macdonald and Jane's.ISBN978-0-354-04201-7.
  • Merriman, Andy (2014).Greasepaint and Cordite: How ENSA Entertained the Troops during World War II.London: Aurum.ISBN978-1-78-131162-2.
  • Morse, Barry (2006).Remember with Advantages.Jefferson: McFarland.ISBN978-0-78-642771-0.
  • Napier, Alan (2015).Not Just Batman's Butler.Jefferson: McFarland.ISBN978-1-47-666287-9.
  • Parker, John, ed. (1939).Who's Who in the Theatre(ninth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.OCLC473894893.
  • Parker, John; Freda Gaye; Ian Herbert (1978).Who Was Who in the Theatre.Detroit: Gale Research.OCLC310466458.
  • Strachan, Alan (2020).Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh.London: Bloomsbury.ISBN978-0-75-560057-1.
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