1. David Lyn Jenkins, known professionally as David Lyn, was a Welsh television, film and stage actor and director who in his 40 year career was at the forefront in the development of professional Welsh language theatre in Wales in the 1960s and 70s and won a BAFTA Cymru.
David Lyn Jenkins was born on 30 April 1927 in Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, one of three children and the only son of Violet Margaret nee Evans and David Jenkins, Theirs was an English-speaking family, although the children picked up the rudiments of the Welsh language.
David Lyn later joined a weekend drama course where a tutor from the Royal Academy of Music recognised his dramatic gifts and persuaded him to move to London to study.
David Lyn spent two years at the RAM and decided to take a career as an actor, making his debut in experimental theatre clubs such as the Watergate Theatre, where the actors would on occasion improvise and where directors were not afraid to take risks.
In 1964 David Lyn acted in The Wars of the Roses, the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy and Richard III - the four plays having been conflated into a trilogy.
Also in the RSC's 1964 season David Lyn appeared in Edward IV, Richard II, played the Earl of Cambridge in Henry V and the Doctor in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.
David Lyn took the step of leaving London to try his hand at acting in his native Wales.
In 1965 David Lyn toured Ireland in a production of Pinter's The Caretaker with the Welsh Theatre Company.
David Lyn became both impatient with the attitude of some of the older members of the drama committee of the Welsh Arts Council who expressed the hope that internationally acclaimed Welsh actors might be persuaded to return to perform in Wales, as well with the Welsh Theatre Company which produced plays with English actors and Welsh actors who lived and mainly worked in England but who acted in Wales only when they couldn't find work in England.
David Lyn almost succeeded in this aim when in 1966 he was among those who founded Theatr yr Ymylon, a bilingual touring theatre company based in Bangor which it was intended would grow into a national theatre for Wales.
David Lyn was the artistic director but the company folded in 1978 as the result of in-fighting over what constituted a "national theatre".
David Lyn returned to acting in television, most notably playing Joseph Parry in Off to Philadelphia in the Morning for the BBC.
David Lyn turned his back on acting, preferring to work in London as a taxi driver while his wife Sally worked as a picture editor on Newsnight, with the couple living on the boat in the wheel house.
In 1982 with the advent of S4C the two returned to Wales where David Lyn learned how to direct for television and film.
In 1984 David Lyn founded Penadur, his television and film company.
David Lyn produced plays for Theatr Powys and produced and directed dramas for the stage and television, sometimes with Hannah and Tim David Lyn, two of his five children.
For Welsh television David Lyn directed a 1993 adaptation of the novel Traed mewn cyffion and various other series and dramas.
In 1994 David Lyn purchased Pilroath, a rundown mansion in Llangain in Carmarthenshire which had large outbuildings in which he built studios and back stage areas.
David Lyn was not in favour of this move, arguing that it would create a 'jobs for the boys' environment that would impact on truly Welsh programme making.
David Lyn was concerned that S4C would produce bi-lingual carbon-copies of television programmes from other countries instead of producing original Welsh dramas.
David Lyn was concerned that, as in the 1970s, actors and television makers would come to work in Wales only for their own personal gain - at the expense of home-grown talent.
David Lyn sold Pilroath, the family home with its outbuildings and used the money to support himself and his wife, with the two moving into one of the outbuildings.
David Lyn lived in London for 15 years married to Faith Owen in 1950, and with whom he had a son, Adam.
David Lyn married again in 1965 to Sally Pepper, with whom he had four children: Sian, Timothy, Bronwen and Hannah Lyn.
David Lyn had 13 grandchildren and was fondly known as Papa.
David Lyn later died at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff in August 2012 aged 85.
David Lyn lived to see the founding of Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, the Welsh language national theatre of Wales, founded in 2003, and its counterpart in National Theatre Wales, the English language national theatre company of Wales, founded in 2009.