A leading figure in English provincial theatre who grew up in Bristol has died at the age of 95.
Malcolm Farquhar was born in Swansea in 1924 but moved to Bristol at a young age, where his father - a keen theatre-goer - was manager of the Bristol Amateur Operatic Society, and his uncle artistic director.
Mr Farquhar's most significant contribution was perhaps as Director of Productions of the repertory (rep) company at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, a role he held from 1971 to 1983, although he had appeared there as an actor as early as 1949 when it was still the Opera House.
He became involved with the Little Theatre in Bristol after having been a reviewer for the Bristol Evening Post during the war.
He joined the Rapier Players there in 1944 after having been invalided out of the army due to ill health.
Following that he worked in various rep companies around the country and made his first West End appearance in 1948 - subsequently playing the lead in the original production of Salad Days at the Vaudeville Theatre, taking over from John Warner.
He also appeared in another Slade/Reynolds musical, Free As Air at the Savoy, in 1957.
Directing called his name and after three successful West End shows in 1970, he was offered the Director of Productions job at Cheltenham, but was replaced following refurbishment work to the building in 1985. He did not work much after that.
He remained in Cheltenham for a while before retiring to Totnes in Devon, before passing away in hospital in Torquay on December 30, 2019.
Theatre writer and director Michael Hasted became good friends with Mr Farquhar when he began researching for his book on the Everyman.
He told Bristol Live: "Malcolm was always warm and friendly and an abundant source of facts and anecdotes.
"He was good fun and I never tired of his company. He was one of what is now, sadly, a dying breed of those who worked in and remember the good old days of rep.
"With his fund of wonderful stories going back more than eighty years he was also a great help to me when I was preparing my book Thespians.
"My last contact with him was a week before he died, his openings words being, 'I’m still here'".
"The memory of Malcolm Farquhar will always be there.
"He will be remembered by those who knew him and by those whose careers he nurtured as one of the great men of British theatre in the middle years of the twentieth century."
Malcolm did not have a wife or children at the time of his death, said Michael.
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