Donald MacKechnie, 65; Actor, Director and Playwright

Donald MacKechnie, 65, a longtime director and playwright who worked with Laurence Olivier at London’s National Theatre before moving to the United States in the 1970s, died Oct. 11 of an AIDS-related illness at a Los Angeles hospice.

MacKechnie was born in London and served in the British Royal Navy before being drawn to work in the theater in the late 1950s. He served as stage manager and artistic director at several theaters before Olivier hired him in 1968 as the first staff director of the National Theatre at the Old Vic.

Over the next several years, he worked closely not only with Olivier, but with Anthony Hopkins, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud and others. Plowright wrote the forward for MacKechnie’s 2002 book “Advice to a Player,” a collection of monologues from Shakespeare to which MacKechnie provided explanatory notes.

In 1973, he became founding artistic director of New York’s GeVa Theatre, where he directed more than 50 plays and was a pioneer in educational outreach programs for children.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1983 and, over the next 20 years, worked as an actor in film, television and on the stage. He led acting workshops for a number of films directed by Roland Joffe, including “Fat Man and Little Boy” and “City of Joy.”

His play, “Meetin’s on the Porch,” had its world premiere in England and was produced in Los Angeles in 1989 at the Canon Theatre with Patty Duke, Carrie Snodgress and Susan Clark as the principal players.