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Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two Tony Awards. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 News Year Honours, and Knight Bachelor in the 1997 New Year Honours.
Eyre started his career as the associate director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh from 1967 to 1972 before becoming the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre from 1987 to 1999. He has directed numerous West End productions earning three Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Director for Guys and Dolls (1982), King Lear (1998), and Hedda Gabler (2006). He was also Olivier-nominated for Racing Demon (1989), Skylight (1995), John Gabriel Borkman (1997), Vincent in Brixton (2003), Mary Poppins (2005), and Ghosts (2014). For his work on Broadway he received Tony Award for Best Director nominations for The Judas Kiss (1998) and The Crucible (2002).
He made his directorial film debut with The Ploughman's Lunch (1983). He went on to direct the dramas Iris (2001) and Notes on a Scandal (2005) earning nominations for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. For television he directed and produced numerous episodes of Play for Today (1979–1981). He also directed The Cherry Orchard (1981), Tumbledown (1988), The Dresser (2015), and King Lear (2018).
He was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in northwest Dorset in southwest England, followed by Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge. Eyre became the first president of Rose Bruford College in July 2010. "Rose Bruford College Appoints its first President" , Rose Bruford College He gives "President's Lectures" at this drama school; his 2012 talk was entitled "Directing Shakespeare for BBC Television". He lives in Brook Green, West London.
Eyre worked as both a director and one of the producers of BBC's Play for Today between 1978 and 1980. He directed The Ploughman's Lunch (written by Ian McEwan) in 1983, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Film. He returned to the BBC in 1988 to direct the Falklands War story Tumbledown (starring Colin Firth), which won him the BAFTA Award for Best Director and the Prix Italia. Prix Italia, Winners 1949 – 2010, RAI He has been the recipient of numerous directing awards including five . In 1982 he won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director, for Guys and Dolls, and in 1997 for King Lear and Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love. In 1997 he won an Olivier Lifetime Achievement Award, and awards from The Directors' Guild of Great Britain, the South Bank Show, the Evening Standard and the Critics' Circle.
Other than Guys and Dolls, his theatre productions include Hamlet (twice), with Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980 and Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989; Richard III with Ian McKellen; King Lear with Ian Holm; Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana and Sweet Bird of Youth; Eduardo De Filippo's and ; Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman with Paul Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins; Ibsen's Hedda Gabler with Eve Best; and numerous new plays by David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Griffiths, Howard Brenton, Alan Bennett, Christopher Hampton and Nicholas Wright. He made his Broadway debut directing the David Hare play Racing Demon earning a Tony Award for Best Play nomination. The following year he directed the Broadway transfer of Hare's play Skylight (1996). He directed Hare's play The Judas Kiss (1998) starring Liam Neeson and Tom Hollander on the West End and Broadway. The next year he directed Judi Dench in Hare's play Amy's View at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway which earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
Eyre has also directed . His debut was the 1994 production of La traviata at the Royal Opera House which starred Angela Gheorghiu and was conducted by Sir Georg Solti. This production was televised and has subsequently been released on video and DVD. Eyre was appointed to the Board of Governors of the BBC in November 1995, and in October 2000 was appointed for a second term of office, though he resigned early (with effect from 31 May 2003) due to theatre and film directing commitments. "Sir Richard Eyre to leave BBC Board of Governors", BBC Press Office. Retrieved 14 December 2012. In 1999, Eyre gave the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he argued public service broadcasting must give way to public interest broadcasting, predicting the imminent demise of public service television. Eyre has written adaptations of Hedda Gabler and of Jean-Paul Sartre's Les mains sales ( Dirty Hands) as The Novice for the Almeida Theatre. A friend of Ian Charleson, whom he directed in acclaimed performances of Guys and Dolls and Hamlet, Eyre contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.Ian McKellen, Alan Bates, Hugh Hudson, et al. For Ian Charleson: A Tribute. London: Constable and Company, 1990. pp. 119–124.
In 2006, he directed Notes on a Scandal, the film adaptation of the Man Booker Prize-nominated novel by Zoë Heller. The film starred Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Bill Nighy. James Christopher of The Times praised the film writing, "Eyre directs the film like a chamber play...his natural gift for framing scenes is terrifically assured. A potent and evil pleasure." The film was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film as well as two Academy Awards for Best Actress for Dench and Best Supporting Actress for Blanchett. He then directed the 2005 stage musical Mary Poppins for West End and Broadway theatre. For his work on the former production he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director nomination. On 14 February 2007, Eyre's production of Nicholas Wright's The Reporter premiered at the National Theatre, London. The play explores the social climate in the years before James Mossman's death as well as the reasons for the death itself. He directed The Other Man (2008), an adaptation of a short story by Bernhard Schlink, starring Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas, and Laura Linney.
Eyre directed a new production of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen for the Metropolitan Opera's 2009–10 season, starring Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. He returned to the Met for the 2013–14 season where he created and directed a new production of Jules Massenet's Werther with Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch and returned to create and direct the 2014–15 season opening production, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. "James Levine's Figaro and The Met's Opening Night Make For a Bad Marriage" by James Jorden, The New York Observer, 24 September 2014 Eyre was planning to direct Jon Robin Baitz's stage adaptation of Hollywood legend Robert Evans' memoirs The Kid Stays in the Picture and its sequel, The Fat Lady Sang, "A Hollywood Player Inspires a Broadway Play" by Michael Cieply, The New York Times, 10 February 2010 but the project was cancelled by the producer.Haun, Harry "Plaibill on Opening Night: Private Lives – Keeping Up with the Chases" , Playbill, 18 November 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2011.
In the late 2010s, Eyre directed numerous projects for the screen. In 2015 he directed the television film The Dresser starring Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen based on the The Dresser by Ronald Harwood. It received positive reviews as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film nomination. He also directed the drama film The Children Act (2017), based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan and starring Emma Thompson. The following year he directed the BBC Two television film King Lear (2018) which starred Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Florence Pugh, and Jim Broadbent. It earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.
In 2021, Eyre directed Allelujah, a film adaptation of Alan Bennett play of the same name which starred Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, Russell Tovey, David Bradley, Derek Jacobi, and Judi Dench. His play 'The Snail House' was premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2022.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours, and Knight Bachelor in the 1997 New Year Honours, receiving the honour on 4 March 1997. He became a Patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust in 2001. He was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998, and was awarded an Honorary degree of Letters by the University of Nottingham on 10 July 2008. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011. He was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to drama.
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