Martin Starkie, British actor and writer died he was , 87

Martin Starkie was an English actor, writer and director for theatre, radio and television. The Oxford University Poetry Society administers the annual Martin Starkie Prize in his honour. Starkie died at the age of 87 on November 5th in London 2010.


(November 25, 1922 –November 5, 2010) 

Starkie was born in Burnley,Lancashire, England, UK and educated at Burnley Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, under critic Nevill Coghill.^[1] In 1946 he founded the Oxford University Poetry Society, and with Roy McNab edited the Oxford Poetry magazine in 1947.

He made his name in the BBC's The Third Programme and on television in the 1950s. He went on to write with Nevill Coghill and composers Richard Hill and John Hawkins, and to produce and direct Canterbury Tales, based on Nevill Coghill’s translation, first in Oxford, then in the West End, on Broadway and in Australia.^[2]

The Oxford University Poetry Society administers the annual Martin Starkie Prize in his honour.

His acting roles included The Resurrection and the Judgement, The Crucifixion, The Second Shepherd’s Play, Guilds and Pageants and Noah and the Flood.

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