Michael Bogdanov, the famed theatre, opera and film director, died after suffering a heart attack on Sunday while on holiday.
Mr Bogdanov, born in Neath, south Wales, to a Jewish father and a Welsh mother in 1938, was known for his modern reinterpretations of Shakespeare, as well his work with new plays.
In 1982 he went on trial at the Old Bailey after staging an act of simulated male sex in his play The Romans in Britain at the National Theatre, accused of procuring an act of “gross indecency” likely to cause offence.
Mr Bogdanov, who faced two years in prison if convicted, spoke 30 years later of his “enormous relief” when the case collapsed.
In 1986 Mr Bogdanov, known as a moderniser, co-founded the English Shakespeare Company with actor Michael Pennington, which was described by director Dominic Dromgoole as “the rock and roll company of the time”.
He directed the company’s inaugural productions of Henry IV and Henry V, before embarking on a worldwide tour of The Wars of the Roses seven-play cycle, for which he won the 1990 Laurence Olivier Award for best director.
The father-of-five, who was raised in Ruislip, west London, enjoyed a 30 year career in which he also directed in the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House, Sydney Opera House, on Broadway and on the West End.
On Tuesday actor and director High Quarshie tweeted: “Heard #MichaelBogdanov died eating, drinking & laughing. Great memories of a great global director, once a colleague, ally & friend. RIP”
Musician and composer Mal Pope told the BBC: “You meet people in life who have an amazing effect on you and I can quite honestly say that Michael Bogdanov changed my life.
“He wasn't easy to work with all the time. Everybody's got a Bogdanov story about how he would maybe shout you out or he would have a go at you about something, but he was an amazing character and he had a wealth of stories about just about everybody in the world of theatre."
Mr Bogdanov’s publicist confirmed he passed away on Sunday, April 16th while on holiday in Greece with friends.
He is survived by his second wife, Ulrike Engelbrecht, their children Pia and Cai, and by three children from his first marriage, to Patricia Ann Warwick, Jethro, Ffion and Malachi.
