{{Short description|British theatre critic and biographer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Richard Findlater''' (1921–1985) was a British theatre critic and biographer.
==Early life== He was born '''Kenneth Bruce Findlater Bain''', but worked under the pen-name Richard Findlater.<ref name=Independent>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/romany-bain-showbusiness-interviewer-who-charmed-richard-burton-and-later-worked-for-larry-lamb-at-the-sun-10158517.html|title=Romany Bain: Show-business interviewer who charmed Richard Burton and later worked for Larry Lamb at 'The Sun'|work=The Independent|date=6 April 2015 |accessdate=13 April 2015}}</ref><ref name="DanLeno">{{cite web|title=Richard Findlater|url=http://www.danleno.co.uk/people/richard-findlater/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611183312/http://www.danleno.co.uk/people/richard-findlater/|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 June 2016|website=The Dan Leno Project|accessdate=5 May 2016}} </ref>
==Career== Findlater was arts editor for ''The Observer'', and became assistant editor in 1963.<ref name="DanLeno" /><ref name="theguardian">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jan/19/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|title=Obituary: Helen Osborne | Global | The Guardian|newspaper=The Guardian |date=19 January 2004 |publisher=theguardian.com|accessdate=5 May 2016 |last1=Coveney |first1=Michael }}</ref>
He wrote 18 books, including biographies of Michael Redgrave, Peggy Ashcroft, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Lillian Baylis and Joseph Grimaldi; a history of stage censorship, ''Banned''; and an account of contemporary British theatre, ''The Unholy Trade''.<ref name="DanLeno" />
==Publications== * ''Grimaldi: King of Clowns'', 1955. * ''Michael Redgrave, Mask or Face'', 1958 * ''Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi'', MacGibbon & Kee, 1968 * ''Comic Cuts: A Bedside Sampler Of Censorship In Action'' Richard Findlater (ed) (Andre Deutsch, 1970) (illustrated by Willie Rushton) * ''At the Royal Court: 25 Years of the English Stage Company'', Amber Lane Press (1981); {{ISBN|0-906399-22-X}}
==Personal life== From 1948 to 1962, he was married to the journalist and showbusiness interviewer Romany Bain, with whom he had four children. One of their sons became an Anglican priest-clown known as Roly Bain or "Holy Roly".<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/08/22/the-reverend-roly-bain-priest-and-clown--obituary/|title=The Reverend Roly Bain, priest and clown – obituary|date=22 August 2016|work=The Telegraph|accessdate=4 September 2016}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Findlater, Richard}} Category:1921 births Category:1985 deaths Category:British biographers Category:British theatre critics Category:People educated at Archbishop Tenison's Church of England School, Lambeth Category:20th-century British journalists Category:Presidents of the Critics' Circle