Robert Fox obit

Robert Fox Dies: ‘The Crown’ EP, Judi Dench & Maggie Smith’s Go-To Broadway & West End Producer, Member Of A Stage & Screen Dynasty Was 73

 He was not on the list.

Robert Fox, who rose from being a film studio runner to assisting directors at London’s Royal Court in the early 1970s to the highest echelons of theater production that saw him presenting Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren and Vanessa Redgrave in new plays and classics in the West End and on Broadway, has died. He was 73. His wife Fiona Golfar confirmed his death to Deadline on Friday.

Golfar said that her husband died “in exactly the way he planned: at home looking out to his flower-filled garden surrounded by his wife and five children on a glorious spring afternoon. It was the epitome of an elegant Robert Fox production.”

He possessed a remarkable air of confidence coupled with class and astute taste — he had a good heart too.

Fox also produced movies such as Richard Eyre’s Iris (2001), about author Iris Murdoch and John Bayley starring Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville, who portrayed their younger selves, and Dench and Jim Broadbent as the couple in their senior years.

Broadbent won the 2002 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Fox’s production of Peter Morgan’s West End and Broadway hit The Audience, directed by Stephen Daldry with Mirren playing the late Queen Elizabeth II, was the inspiration for what would become the juggernaut Netflix drama The Crown, of which Fox was an executive producer.

It seemed wholly appropriate that he should become involved with the project because he was himself a product of stage and screen royalty. The Fox dynasty stretched far and wide.

He was the youngest son of theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington, who was the subject of Noël Coward’s witty ditty “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington.” She was also the daughter of playwright Frederick Lonsdale (Aren’t We All?, On Approval).

His brothers are the actors Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal, The Duellists) and James Fox (Performance, Thoroughly Modern Millie). And he was uncle to a skulk of Fox thespians including Emilia Fox (Silent Witness) and Freddie Fox (House of the Dragon).

Stage stars adored him because he was adept at calming their fears, especially if they were venturing into a brand-new play. 

Fox produced several plays with Smith in the lead. They included Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage with Margaret Tyzack. When the play became a hit in London, Smith told Fox that she wouldn’t transfer with it to New York unless Tyzack went with her. Fox acquiesced reasoning that, “If Maggie’s happy, then the whole company’s happy.”

Some battles were insurmountable. When Smith starred as Lady Bracknell in Nicholas Hytner’s 1993 revival of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Aldwych Theatre, Fox had a feeling from the first preview that all would not end up well.“In a word, she hated it. Hated everything about it,” Fox recounted when Deadline contacted him following Smith’s death in 2024, mentioning a co-star “she thought was all wrong” and “the set and the costumes and the direction.”

Smith famously said that she wouldn’t transfer the production to Woking, “let alone Broadway.”

He also produced Smith and Dench in David Hare’s The Breath of Life, where he said, “Maggie got herself in a bit of a state, although she ended up being marvelous.”

Hare on Friday praised Fox’s fortitude, saying, “Anyone who was Maggie Smith’s unfailing producer of choice had exceptional patience for incomparable rewards.”

Hare also said in tribute: ”What I would like to say is that Robert Fox was not the last of the gentleman producers but he was their exemplar — decent, loyal, uncomplaining, supportive, discerning, with superb taste but also recklessly funny about show business and all its absurdities.”

That’s a view echoed by Richard Eyre, who interrupted shooting The Housekeeper in Cornwall to observe that “Robert was a wonderful producer and friend — very fair and witty and wise and knowledgeable. I’ll miss him terribly.”

Fox’s frequent partner on Broadway was Scott Rudin, who saluted Fox for being “as bold and original a producer as any of the greatest. He had all the equipment anybody could want — taste, drive, insight, instincts, wit, charm, ambition, know-how, fearlessness, commitment, ferocity and style. We made a great deal of work together, and it was always fun and funny and challenging and ridiculous and rewarding. Nobody I ever worked with was smarter about how to make something good than Robert was. It was frequently hard and nearly always a blast. He had a way of doing it that was built by him and for him, and we were all fortunate to be around it and to have the chance to make a lot of great stuff together. He was a loyal and devoted friend and colleague and built his life over time so that he gave as much as he got from Fiona and all his kids. He leaves a very big hole in a lot of our lives.”

For several years Fox worked in the office of producer Michael White, then branched out on his own.

Fox produced scores of plays over the years. They include:

Goose Pimples by Mike Leigh; Anyone for Dennis? by John Wells, which was his first big hit after founding Robert Fox Ltd.; Another Country by Julian Mitchell with Rupert Everett, Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Firth all making their West End stage debuts; The Seagull by Anton Chekhov starring Vanessa Redgrave, Jonathan Pryce and Natasha Richardson; Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein starring Anthony Sher; Ronald Harwood’s Interpreters starring Smith and Edward Fox; J.J. Farr starring Albert Finney; Chess by Tim Rice, Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus; Anything Goes starring Elaine Paige; Martin Sherman’s A Madhouse In Goa and When She Danced, both starring Redgrave; Burn This by Lanford Wilson starring John Malkovich; the world premiere of Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mt. Morgan directed by Michael Blakemore; Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women starring Smith, directed by Anthony Page, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? starring Diana Rigg and directed by Howard Davies; A Delicate Balance, starring Smith and Eileen Atkins; David Hare’s Skylight starring Michael Gambon and Lia Williams, The Judas Kiss starring Liam Neeson and Amy’s View starring Dench — all three directed by Richard Eyre; The Blue Room on Broadway starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Sam Mendes; The Boy From Oz, a musical in Australia; Little Malcolm starring Ewan McGregor; Closer written and directed by Patrick Marber; the world premiere of Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van starring Smith and directed by Nicholas Hytner; Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker starring Michael Gambon; and the World Premiere of David Hare’s The Breath of Life starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters directed by Sam Mendes; Salome starring Al Pacino and The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman; Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon starring Frank Langella and Michael Sheen; Albee’s The Lady From Dubuque starring Smith; The Vertical Hour written by David Hare, starring Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy; Eugène Ionesco’s Exit The King, starring Geoffrey Rush; God of Carnage starring Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden; A Behanding in Spokane starring Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan; Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway; The Judas Kiss starring Rupert Everett; The Audience by Peter Morgan, starring Mirren, directed by Daldry; Stephen Ward with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber;Fatal Attraction directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Mark Blazeley, Natascha McElhone and Kristen Davis; Skylight on Broadway, directed by Daldry, starring Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan; Hugh Jackman’s Broadway to Oz; Lazarus, directed by Ivo Van Hove, written by David Bowie and Enda Walsh and starring Michael C Hall; Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen starring David Morrissey.

A revival of the musical Chess is currently on Broadway. Fox produced the original 1984 production in London. Lyricist Tim Rice sent a message to the Chess company that read:

“We are very sad to say that one of the most inspirational and dedicated supporters of Chess, Robert Fox, has died in England.

Most of you would not have had the opportunity to meet Robert, who was desperately sad to miss your opening night in November because of ill health. He saw the show in America in Washington at the Kennedy Centre, and then at the Broadhurst benefit in 2022 which of course was the production that became the basis of the successful Imperial show.

It’s impossible to overestimate the contribution that Robert made to Chess for over four decades. Most producers would have abandoned ship after some of the crises that Chess went through even before the 1986 London production opened. But the show survived – in great part thanks to Robert’s belief and tenacity. It would not be playing so well at the Imperial today without his unstinting support and belief in the show, and it is a tragedy that he was unable to see it.

His loss will be particularly felt in his home country as he was a remarkable contributor to so many theatrical and cinematic successes, in addition to being a most distinguished member of one of Great Britain’s great theatrical families.

He was down to earth, funny, totally unpretentious and honest (sometimes too honest!). Above all we are so glad that he knew that the show he believed in had finally succeeded on Broadway. That he never met many of the wonderful contributors to this success is your loss as much as his.

RIP Robert.”

Robert E. Wankel, chairman and CEO of The Shubert Organization, who put many of Fox’s productions into Shubert theaters, paid the following tribute: “We here at The Shubert Organization count ourselves lucky to have a close professional relationship with Robert Fox that dates back to 1986. For almost forty years we have had the pleasure of his intelligence, his honesty and his collaborative spirit. Through leadership changes at our organization due to death or retirement, Robert has been steadfast in his friendship and support. He is an exceptional partner. He exercises meticulousness and care in everything he undertakes.“

On screen, Fox also produced A Month by the Lake starring Redgrave, Edward Fox and Uma Thurman; The Hours starring Meryl Streep, Kidman and Julianne Moore, directed by Daldry and with a screenplay by David Hare; and Notes on a Scandal starring Dench, Cate Blanchett and Nighy; and Wilde Salome, written and directed by and starring Al Pacino. He was executive producer on Another Country starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth; Closer, directed by Mike Nichols starring Julia Roberts; and Atonement, directed by Joe Wright.

Back in the day, Fox spent three days auditioning for Bob Fosse when he was casting Cabaret, but the role ended up going to Michael York. Shortly after that, Fox realized that being a producer was the hat that he wanted to wear.

Fox was married three times Firstly to esteemed casting director Celestia Fox -a powerhouse in her day alongside Mary Selway and Susie Figgis – ( Robert’s son is Sam Fox, co owner of B-Side), then the actress Natasha Richardson. He later met and wed Golfar, a distinguished writer and a former editor at Vogue.

 

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