Living to please…A British actor’s life.
Richard Moore.

Veteran actor, Richard Moore’s career spans over 50 years in television, radio, theatre, and films and is well known known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and to millions of TV viewers for his roles in the drama series, “Band of Gold, “ “McCallum,” and for his three years in Emmerdale, as Jarvis Skelton, a programme watched by over 10 million viewers.
The first volume of his memoir, “Living to please…an actor’s life,” covers the period from the 1940’s when he was born in the northern industrial town of Burnley, a few streets away from Sir Ian McKellen, until the early 80s.
He lovingly describes the theatrical side of his hometown when Tyrone Guthrie moved in with the Old Vic Company during the Second World War, a company that included, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike and relates how Guthrie turned down Vivien Leigh shortly after Gone with the Wind had made her into an international star.
Working as a press photographer on his local paper, Moore fell in love with Shakespeare and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before working extensively in the Repertory system and the exciting world of live TV drama in the early 60’s with directors like, Ken Loach.
Turning down a long contract with Britain's top "Soap" series, Coronation Street, Moore joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1965 to carry a spear and was made a long term Associate Artist, seven months later, acting alongside, Ian Holm, David Warner, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Eric Porter, Ian Richardson and Paul Scofield.
He has worked in a score of well-known productions under the direction of Peter Hall, John Barton, Terry Hands, Trevor Nunn and Peter Brook, touring Russia, the USA and Europe with productions like, Henry V with Alan Howard and Brook’s famous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In films, he has worked with directors like Richard Lester and Sidney Lumet alongside Sean Connery, Ian Bannen and Omar Sharif and in the theatre took over the part of Dracula in the West End from film star George Chakiris.
He also worked in light entertainment on television with some of Britain’s well-known vaudeville stars like Jimmy Jewel, Hylda Baker and Dick Emery.

Richard Moore’s well researched, funny and often revealing memoir, will entertain, inform and amuse theatregoers and television viewers in equal measure.