Michael Elliott (director)
Michael Elliott, OBE (26 June 1931 – 30 May 1984) was an English theatre and television director. He was a founding artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Elliott was born in London, the son of Rev. Canon Wallace Harold Elliott and Edith Plaistow Kilburn. He studied at Radley College and Keble College, Oxford, where he met Caspar Wrede, a close collaborator for many years. After Oxford, he helped direct Edward II at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then joined the BBC to direct plays for television.
In 1959 he became assistant artistic director of the 59 Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. The company produced successful works such as Brand (Elliott’s directorial debut), Little Eyolf, and Danton’s Death. In 1961, Elliott directed and helped run a season at The Old Vic, with Wrede as his assistant.
On stage, he directed As You Like It for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Peer Gynt for the Old Vic, and Miss Julie for the National Theatre. He also worked on television adaptations of plays and directed productions in Norway and Sweden. He completed more than 50 UK productions, with his last in 1983 being King Lear starring Laurence Olivier.
In 1967, Elliott and Wrede helped direct productions for Braham Murray’s Century Theatre at the University of Manchester, and in 1968 they formed the 69 Theatre Company at the university, producing until 1972. This collaboration laid the groundwork for the Royal Exchange Theatre, where Elliott served as a founding artistic director and remained for most of his career.
He married actress Rosalind Knight in 1959, and they had two daughters: Marianne Elliott, a theatre director, and Susannah Elliott-Knight, an actor and director. He was awarded the OBE in 1979.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:39 (CET).