Tribute to Andrew Jarvis (6 June 1947–16 November 2025)

9th December 2025

It is with great sadness that we record the death of actor and former Trustee of the BSA, Andrew Jarvis.

Andrew Jarvis’s skill and expertise embraces the entire range of activities associated with Shakespeare. He has been a member of the major acting companies in the UK, from his ten years at the RSC and his brilliant performance as Richard III in Michael Bogdanov’s highly innovative English Shakespeare Company’s production of The Wars of the Roses, through to two seasons at the National Theatre and performances from Sheffield Crucible to the Guildhall in King’s Lynn. His understudying of both roles in the National Theatre production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land. played by Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart, was acclaimed by them in rehearsals and the audience gave Andrew a standing ovation when Sir Patrick was ill and he stepped in to perform.

Andrew has also been a fine teacher of Shakespearean verse-speaking, at Mountview Academy, and in giving  fantastic workshops for the for the British Shakespeare Association in the UK and at the other side of the globe, for the Australian New Zealand Shakespeare Association in Perth.  Members of the BSA are deeply indebted to Andrew for the boundlessly enthusiastic and imaginative work he did as a Trustee for the BSA. This included a role as Chair of the BSA’s Honorary Fellowships Committee. He was, at the time of his death, busy planning an event in Kings Lynn, to follow the very successful 2019 conference there on Shakespeare in which he and Sir Ian McKellan both gave performances at the Guildhall. His funeral will be on 10 December at 2.30 and his wife Gillian has provided details here. Our thoughts are with her and her family. Andrew’s contribution to the BSA and to Shakespeare studies beyond has been phenomenal and we will miss him very much.