Disley Jones
Clifford Disley Jones (15 January 1926 – 4 June 2005) was an English
Life
Jones was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, and left his private school after the failure of his father's timber business.
Stage designer
Jones first entered the theatre as a member of an
In the 1940s the designer at the Players' Theatre, in London, Reginald Woolley, hired Jones as an assistant and taught him the fundamentals of scenic design, as well as painting and construction.[1] Jones designed his first production, Twelfth Night, for the Midland Theatre Company at the College Theatre in Coventry.[1] Jones also designed for several repertory theatres around the United Kingdom as well as the Oxford Playhouse and Bristol Old Vic. He designed his first production in London, The Seagull, at the Arts Theatre in 1953.[1] He was also responsible for two early productions by Peter Hall, The Impresario From Smyrna and Listen to the Wind.[1] Jones also designed Hall's 1954 production of Gigi at the New Theatre.
Jones's partner, Reginald Cornish, had become the manager of the Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre in the 1950s, and Jones joined him there, designing The Dock Brief, What Shall We Tell Caroline? and Share My Lettuce in 1958, and The Demon Barber in 1959.[1] Comedian Kenneth Williams appeared in Share My Lettuce, and was dismissive of Jones in his diary, writing "Disley Jones charged Bamber Gascoigne with subversion, and ordered him out of the theatre. What an incredible lot of amateurs I am among! What a crock of shit".[2] While at the Lyric, Eleanor Fazan and Jones collaborated on the revue One to Another, persuading Bamber Gascoigne, John Mortimer and Harold Pinter to write lyrics for it.[1] Jones had previously worked with Pinter on Pinter's play, The Birthday Party.[3]
Musicals Jones worked on included
The first television production designed by Jones was All Summer Long, in 1960.[4] Other TV productions designed by Disley included The Rehearsal, Summer's Pride, and The Teachers.[4]
Jones also worked internationally, designing
Final years
Jones ran Them and Theirs, a shop in St Christopher's Place, off London's Oxford Street, which sold commemorative ceramics and picture postcards. Jones had always been a collector of memorabilia and art works.[1]
In the mid-1990s Jones succeeded the late Reginald Woolley, as the resident designer of the
Soon after quitting the Players, he was diagnosed with AIDS. He was stoic upon his AIDS diagnosis, saying "You can hardly be surprised, the way I've carried on."[1] Jones benefitted from treatment, and returned to work, conceiving imaginative projects for films and plays, of which none were brought to fruition.[1]
Jones' partner for almost forty years was Reginald Cornish, who he met at the College Theatre in Coventry.[1] There were together until Cornish's death in 1985. They moved to Spain in the mid-1970s, due to Cornish's health, and ran a restaurant called the Wide-Mouthed Frog in Estepona on the Costa del Sol.[1] The restaurant attracted many of Jones's friends from showbusiness. Jones returned to the United Kingdom following Cornish's death.[1]
Jones was a regular in the
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v David Robinson (23 June 2005). "Obituary: Disley Jones". The Guardian. London.
- ISBN 978-0-00-638090-0. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-3886-4. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
- ^ a b c d "Obituary: Disley Jones". The Stage. London. 19 July 2005.
- ^ "Stars – Behind the cameras". The Italian Job. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
- ^ Shepherd, Marc. "The 1966 D'Oyly Carte Mikado Film", A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 15 April 2009, accessed 16 July 2014
Website: "Disley Jones Website". Archived from the original on 10 December 2013.