Basil Dean (1888-1978). Producer and director

During the 1920s and 1930s Basil Dean was a, if not the, dominant theatrical producer and manager in London’s West End. He was born in Croydon in 1888, and trained initially as a scientist before working for two years on the London Stock Exchange. However, having acted in a number of amateur theatricals, in 1906 he made his professional stage debut in Cheltenham. In 1911 he began his career as a producer in Liverpool where he founded an experimental theatrical company that eventually became the Liverpool Playhouse.

Following service during World War One, which included running a number of theatres and touring companies for the services, he became a London producer. Among his early successes was Hassan in 1923, an exotic drama with music by Frederick Delius and choreography by Léonide Massine. Between the wars Dean was dominant (and domineering) in the London theatre world and also in films, particularly at Ealing Studios, but it was during World War Two that he had his greatest achievement, in the colossal task of running and directing the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).

Dean returned from ENSA to the West End in 1945, but never fully regained his earlier dominance. His last production was staged in Liverpool, in 1961, to mark the 50th anniversary of the company he had founded, and of his own career as a producer. Dean was made a CBE in 1947, and died in London in 1978.