Angus Mackay & Dorothy Reynolds

Representation by Caroline de Wolfe

Angus Mackay was a British actor born on the 15th July 1926. Throughout his illustrious 50-year career, Mackay played a variety of roles both on stage and film and television from a portentous clergyman to a police officer to a meticulous headmaster. By the 1950s, he had already begun to establish himself and create connections that would be important throughout his life. One such connection was Julian Slade, the British composer best known for Salad Days. Mackay played Warwick alongside Julian Slade in the 1950 production of St Joan at the Watergate Theatre in London. His relationship with Julian Slade along with their mutual representation by Felix de Wolfe would eventually lead him to meet his wife, Dorothy Reynolds, who co-wrote many musicals with Julian Slade throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, Angus Mackay was included in the original cast of their best-known collaboration Salad Days. And he would be cast in many of their subsequent musicals, including Horray for Daisy (1959), Follow That Girl (1960), and Wildest Dreams (1961). While performing with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Angus established deep associations with the Bristol Old Vic, the Salisbury Arts, and the Everyman Cheltenham theatres. All three theatres were saved from financial difficulties in campaigns that Mackay and his wife were active in. Mackay also made a name for himself on the screen, most notably as the original Chancellor Borusa in five classic Doctor Who episodes. He is also known for his roles as the psychiatrist in Breakdown (1976), and for his part in European Vacation (1985). Perhaps influenced by his wife’s success, Mackay also tried his hand at playwriting, scripting and performing in Nicholson Fights Croydon in 1986. After his wife died in 1977, Mackay began to offer lodging in his home to drama students, thus helping to influence the next generation of British actors and writers, and he passed away on June 8, 2013.

Dorothy Reynolds was a British actress and writer born on January 26 1913. She is best known for her collaboration with composer Julian Slade on numerous musicals in the 1960s and 1970s, including their hit Salad Days. When it first hit the stage in 1954, Salad Days was the most successful musical ever produced in England. In fact, with over 2,280 performances it remains one of the longest running British musicals ever to hit the stage. It was originally performed at the Bristol Old Vic theatre, but eventually moved to the West End. However despite her growing popularity Dorothy Reynolds retained her ties to the Bristol Old Vic where her career as a playwright initially kicked off. It was at the Old Vic in 1952 that Reynolds first met Julian Slade and collaborated on their first project, Christmas in King Street for the holiday programming. Throughout her long career , Reynolds & Slade would produce a number of musicals including, Free as Air (1957), Horray for Daisy (1959), Vanity Fair (1962), Sixty Thousand Nights (1966), and Pursuit of Love (1967). Her husband, fellow actor and writer Angus Mackay performed in many of her plays and developed a beneficial relationship with Slade, and all three artists were represented by Felix de Wolfe over the course of their careers.

Reynolds retired from writing at the end of the 1960s but continued acting until her death in 1977. She appeared in many television series including Girls About Town (1970), Crown Court (1974), and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1976). She died in 1977, leaving behind a plethora of work for future generations to enjoy. The hit musical Salad Days has been revived numerous times, including sold-out shows in 2011 and 2012 at the Riverside Studios in London.

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