13 Facts About Edward Petherbridge

Edward Petherbridge was born on 3 August 1936 and is an English actor, writer and artist.

Edward Petherbridge made his professional stage debut at the Ludlow Festival in 1956, playing Gaveston in Marlowe's Edward II.

Edward Petherbridge began his tenure as part of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company in the 1960s, walking on in Olivier's Othello and later creating the role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Edward Petherbridge has been a leading actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre; was a founding member of the Actors' Company in 1972; and with Ian McKellen established the McKellen-Petherbridge Group at the RNT in 1985.

Edward Petherbridge has been praised for both tragic and comic parts, interpreting roles from Feydeau to Euripides.

Edward Petherbridge has performed in stage musicals, including The Woman in White, Lost in the Stars, The Fantasticks, Coco, and, most recently, a musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Edward Petherbridge is a winner of the Olivier and London Theatre Critics' Awards, and has twice been nominated for a Tony Award.

Edward Petherbridge has been a recipient of the Sony Award for Best Actor in a Radio Drama.

Edward Petherbridge married the actress Emily Richard who died in 2024.

In 2007, Edward Petherbridge suffered two strokes while preparing to star in a production of King Lear.

Edward Petherbridge is the author of Pillar Talk, a one-man show about Saint Simeon Stylites, published in 2005.

Edward Petherbridge has contributed to The Continuum Companion to Twentieth-Century Theatre.

In 2011, Edward Petherbridge published an autobiographical anthology of essays, poems and artwork under the title Slim Chances and Unscheduled Appearances, which includes a foreword by Sir Ian McKellen.