Douglas Campbell was born on 11 June 1922 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Oedipus Rex (1957), Bill Brand (1976) and Double Negative (1980). He was married to Ann Casson and Moira Wylie. He died on 6 October 2009 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Douglas Campbell enjoyed a distinguished career, embracing acting and directing, in Stratford, Minneapolis, New York, and London. He played all the major classical roles virtually — from Falstaff to Clytemnestra — and his 30 years in the theatre have included everything from vaudeville to opera.
Campbell appeared in many productions at the London and Bristol Old Vic companies, the Glasgow Citizens Theatre and the Birmingham and Liverpool repertory ensembles. A performer and director at Stratford, Ontario, since the festival's inception, he has essayed title roles in Othello, Henry VIII, and in the late Tyrone Guthrie's production of Oedipus Rex, a triumph repeated at the Festival and on film.
On Broadway, he received acclaim in Paddy Chayevsky's Gideon, first in the title role, later as God.
Also, he directed Moliere's The Miser, starring Hume Cronyn, during the inaugural season of the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. It was presented later at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Mr. Campbell staged the Broadway production of Orson Welles' adaptation of Moby-Dick and, at Stratford in 1968, directed Romeo and Juliet and Rossini's La Cenerentola. By 1980, he directed Carol Lawrence and Robert Goulet in a revival of Camelot in Los Angeles.
Campbell was the memorable Alfred Doolittle in the last Civic Light Opera production of My Fair Lady, the same season he appeared as Clytemnestra and the Goddess Athena in the Minnesota Theatre Company production of The House of Atreus at the Mark Taper Forum. Campbell was also a founding member of the Canadian Players in 1954.
He also appeared at the Shaw Festival as Shotover in Heartbreak House, Borkman in Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, and Undershaft in Major Barbara.
He directed Captain Brassbound's Conversion and Dear Liar and starred in the critically acclaimed production of The Staircase at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax.
