28 Facts About Sean Mathias

Sean Gerard Mathias was born on 14 March 1956 and is a Welsh actor, director, and writer.

Sean Mathias is known for directing the film Bent and for directing highly acclaimed theatre productions in London, New York City, Cape Town, Los Angeles and Sydney.

Sean Mathias was included in the 2006 list of the 101 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain in the Independent on Sunday's Pink List.

Sean Mathias began his acting career by appearing on the television screen in a small role on an episode of the cult BBC TV series Survivors, in 1977.

In 1978, Sean Mathias appeared in a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, during which time he met actor Ian McKellen who subsequently became his lover of about nine years.

Sean Mathias made one notable appearance in the 1988 film White Mischief as Gerald Portman.

The episode was entitled "Broken Arrow" and, in it, Sean Mathias played the part of a young darts player named Dafydd.

Sean Mathias followed it with Infidelities, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1985 before transferring to London's Donmar Warehouse.

Sean Mathias's writing includes a novel, Manhattan Mourning, published in 1988, and the BBC TV film The Lost Language of Cranes, broadcast in 1992.

Sean Mathias went on to direct theatrical plays both in London and on Broadway, including Pam Gems' adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with McKellen and Antony Sher in 1992 at the Royal National Theatre; Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, and Noel and Gertie starring Patricia Hodge and Edward Petherbridge.

In 1994, Sean Mathias won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Director for Noel Coward's Design for Living and Jean Cocteau's Les Parents terribles, starring Sheila Gish, Frances de la Tour, Alan Howard and Jude Law.

Sean Mathias directed his first Stephen Sondheim musical, A Little Night Music, at the West End National Theatre in October 1995, with Judi Dench and Sian Phillips.

Sean Mathias had worked with Phillips before, directing her in another Pam Gems adaptation, Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff in 1993.

Sean Mathias worked with Sian Phillips again in 1997, directing her as Marlene Dietrich in Marlene, which transferred to Broadway in 1999 and received two Tony Award nominations.

Sean Mathias went on to direct this in London and Sydney in 2003.

Sean Mathias followed this in April 2002 with a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man starring Billy Crudup at the Royale Theatre.

In 2005, Sean Mathias directed Rebecca Lenkiewicz's Shoreditch Madonna at the Soho Theatre in London, starring Francesca Annis and Leigh Lawson.

Sean Mathias returned to the US to direct Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, with Annette Bening, Alfred Molina and Lothaire Bluteau, which opened at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in February 2006.

Sean Mathias has had a home in South Africa since 1997 after visiting the country with the National Theatre in 1994 for a series of workshops.

Sean Mathias made his South African directing debut in July 2004 with Jean Anouilh's Antigone at the Rhodes Theatre at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, starring the South African actor John Kani.

Sean Mathias began 2008 by directing a revival of Ring Round the Moon, Christopher Fry's adaption of Jean Anouilh's comedy, L'Invitation au Chateau, starring Angela Thorne at the West End Playhouse Theatre.

Sean Mathias followed this with the UK production of Triptych at the London Southwark Playhouse in April 2008.

Sean Mathias directed McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, which toured the UK in early 2009 before opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London in May 2009.

Sean Mathias's second play at the Theatre Royal Haymarket was a stage version of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, adapted for the stage by British playwright Samuel Adamson and starring Anna Friel, which opened in September 2009, with some critics commenting negatively on the adaptation though noting the actors' "good performances" and the play's "fluent staging".

Sean Mathias directed Waiting For Godot and No Man's Land in repertory on Broadway at the Cort Theatre again starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart.

Sean Mathias has been planning to direct a new film set in South Africa and titled The Colossus, which he has adapted from the Ann Harries novel Manly Pursuits.

Sean Mathias was in a relationship with actor Ian McKellen from 1978 to 1988.

Sean Mathias married his partner Paul de Lange in South Africa in 2007.