Born in London he was brought up in Nottingham where his father taught interior design at the College of Art. An early interest in the theatre found him taking part in the school dramatic society plays at High Pavement School in Nottingham and later with 3 Nottingham Dramatic Societies at the same time and spending all his evenings at one or other of them. This resulted in him winning a scholarship to RADA then to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford for a season then in 1953 he toured Australia and New Zealand in Shakespeare productions. In 1955 he joined Peter Brooks Hamlet company for a Russian and Moscow tour. He married a girl from Stratford upon Avon.