Leonard Maguire (26 May 1924 – 12 September 1997) was a Scottish stage, television and film actor. He was born in England but lived much of his life in Scotland. Maguire's acting career, began in the 1940s.
Early life
Maguire was born in Manchester, England, to Scottish parents.[1] His father was Thomas Maguire, a former consul in Valparaíso, Chile,[2] who was of Irish descent. Maguire's family moved to Antwerp, Belgium in 1926 before moving to Glasgow, Scotland, in 1932. He was educated at St Mungo's Academy in Glasgow.[1] Maguire was one of the founding members of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre[3] in 1943, after being invalided out of the RAF during World War II.[1] He began in the company as an Assistant Stage Manager with walk on parts.[2]
He appeared on stage in numerous plays, including world premieres from Samuel Beckett and Dylan Thomas at the Edinburgh Festival. Maguire won the sought-after Fringe First award three years in a row for solo shows (1976, 1977, 1978); he was the only performer to accomplish this.[4] In 1959, he played Menteith in Finlay J. MacDonald's BBC radio production of Sydney Goodsir Smith's play, The Wallace.[5] During the fifteen years period from 1951, he presented nearly 2,000 radio programmes, which included Scope and Perspective.[6] He was one of the hosts of the television arts programme Tempo in the 1960s.[4]
Maguire married radio producer Frances Campbell (1917–2008) in the 1960s.[7] After his retirement, Maguire moved to France, settling in the village of Cordes-sur-Ciel, where he died in 1997 after a lengthy illness. He was aged 73. He was survived by his wife and their three children.[4]
