Roy Dotrice was born on the Island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands … Read Full Bio ↴Roy Dotrice was born on the Island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France and part of the United Kingdom. He was the first child of Louis and Neva Dotrice who were well respected, quality bakers. But when the Germans occupied the island in 1940, Roy, his mother and brother escaped to England. Here, in 1942 at age 16, Roy joined the Royal Air Force and was trained as a wireless operator and air gunner. He was soon flying missions, bombing enemy territory until his plane was shot down. Captured and taken prisoner, Roy spent the rest of the war as a P.O.W., where his first taste for the theater took root, performing concerts to raise the spirits of his fellow inmates.

At the end of the war, Roy decided to follow his instincts and pursue an acting career. It was at this time Roy met and married actress Kay Newman, and for the next three and half years, they acted in repertory with Charles Denville and the Denville Players. During this time, Roy also produced and directed some three hundred plays, with a new one being performed each week.

In 1957, Roy joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford, England, (later to become the Royal Shakespeare Company), and for the next nine years performed in all of Shakespeare's plays while working with the world's greatest actors and directors. Interestingly enough, Roy considers his greatest achievement was to introduce baseball into what had been a cricket stronghold, and in 1959 he pitched for his team that included at first base, Paul Robeson (Othello); second base, Sam Wanamaker (Iago); third base, Laurence Olivier (Coriolanus), short stop, Peter O'Toole (Shylock); Charles Laughton (Lear) plate umpire and Albert Finney his catcher.

The training he received was to lead him into radio, film, television, and a multitude of wonderful theater productions staged throughout the world. Roy has appeared in ten Broadway productions and received a Tony nomination for his work in A Life, and on June 4, 2000 received a Tony award for his outstanding performance in A Moon for the Misbegotten.

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