12 Facts About Henry Woolf

Henry Woolf was a British actor, theatre director, and teacher of acting, drama and theatre who lived in Canada.

Henry Woolf was a longtime friend and collaborator of 2005 Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, having stimulated Pinter to write his first play, The Room, in 1956.

Henry Woolf was born to Jewish parents in Homerton, London on 20 January 1930.

Henry Woolf was educated at Hackney Downs School, where he met Harold Pinter; he and Pinter were friends and collaborators for over 60 years.

Henry Woolf earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of London and then pursued a postgraduate course in directing at the University of Bristol, before going to the United States, to earn a postgraduate diploma from the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

On British television, Henry Woolf played the Man in Harold Pinter's one-man play Monologue ; parts in Rutland Weekend Television and The Sweeney ; the Collector in the Doctor Who serial The Sun Makers ; served as the host of the 1970s pre-school British educational series Words and Pictures; and performed the role of Doctor Cornelius in the BBC adaptation of Prince Caspian.

Henry Woolf played a role in Steptoe and Son as local gangster Frankie Barrow, a role which had originated in Steptoe and Son Ride Again, the second film spin-off of the series.

Henry Woolf joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan in 1983, was promoted to professor in 1990, serving as head of its Drama Department, and received the university's Master Teacher Award in 1994, before retiring in 1997, at the Canadian mandatory retirement age of 67.

Henry Woolf served as artistic director of the annual summer Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival, in Saskatoon, from 1991 until his retirement from that position in 2001.

In March 2003, Henry Woolf directed an all-female production of Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, at the University of Winnipeg.

Henry Woolf was a member of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

Henry Woolf received the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal on 17 February 2006 Saskatchewan Centennial Medal.