In Memoriam - Clive Young

 Former Chair of Combined Actors, director, actor and singer, Clive Young was remembered at Cambridge Crematorium on 26th July, 2023, in a packed chapel.

Andrew Shepherd, current Chair of Combined Actors, writes:

If the quality of a life is measured by the positive effects it has on one's fellow humans, then Clive's was surely a very good one. I first met him in 2007, when he played Mr Dick in Colin Lawrence's excellent production of Nick Warburton's David Copperfield adaptation. I have never, before or since, seen a better rendition of this eccentric Dickens character, a kindly simpleton who nevertheless dispenses a plain wisdom. A few years later Clive directed me in Conor McPherson's 'The Weir' and I saw his deft touch at first hand - he knew what he wanted, planned thoroughly and with great tact and patience drew out the best from his actors. His production of Twelfth Night the following year, 2012, was a truly memorable one, his reputation encouraging a powerful cast to audition for him and his simple but highly effective staging made the play sparkle. And his final on-stage appearance as the wheelchair-bound, aging poet in Tennessee Williams' 'Night of the Iguana' really stole the show, his perfectly paced and pitched delivery of Nonno's final poem leaving the audience in a deeply moved, stunned silence every night...
There will be many, many people like me whose lives were made richer by witnessing his acting, by benefitting from his direction, from hearing his singing or from simply enjoying his company, his wit and enthusiasm for life.