Peter Brook

This article is about the theatre and film director. For the painter, see Peter Brook (painter). For the England rugby union player, see Peter Brook (rugby union). For other people with similar names, see Peter Brooke and Peter Brooks.

Peter Brook CH CBE
Brook in 2009
Born	Peter Stephen Paul Brook (1925-03-21)21 March 1925 Chiswick, Middlesex, England
Died	2 July 2022(2022-07-02) (aged 97) Paris, France
Education	Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupations	Stage director, film director, co-founder of International Centre for Theatre Research
Years active	1943–2022
Spouse	Natasha Parry ​ ​ (m. 1951; died 2015)​
Children	Irina Simon
Relatives	Alexis Brook (brother) Valentin Pluchek (cousin)

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH CBE (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century theatre, he has received various accolades, including two Tony Awards, the Praemium Imperiale, the Prix Italia and the Europe Theatre Prize. In 2021, he was awarded India's Padma Shri.

Brook was based in France from the early 1970s, where he founded an international theatre company, playing in developing countries, in an approach of great simplicity. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). With them, he directed the first English-language production in 1964 of Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, which was transferred to Broadway in 1965 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Brook was named Best Director. He co-founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in 1970, and was its artistic director until 2008.

Brook's feature film credits included screen versions of plays like The Beggar's Opera (1953), Marat/Sade (1966), King Lear (1971), and The Mahabharata (1989); and literary adaptations such as Seven Days... Seven Nights (1960) with Jeanne Moreau, and Lord of the Flies (1963).