Gibbons, Philip

Born in 1920 in Neath, Wales, William Squire began his working life in a bell foundry before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Following graduation and a five-year spell in the Royal Navy during WW2, he joined the Old Vic Company and began his stage career, staying for two seasons and touring America with them.

Squire's first performance on stage was in 1937 with the Bedford Guild of Players in a production of Jerome K. Jerome's The Passing of the Third Floor Back . He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1948 and played Laertes to Paul Scofield and Robert Helpmann's Hamlet in his first season. Performances in Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline and A Midsummer Night's Dream followed. His Christmas performances as Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall proved popular, and he continued to play the role at both Stratford and West End theatres well into the 1950s.

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