Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (
2 July 1900 –
15 May 1971) was an
Anglo-Irish Tony Award-winning theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the
Stratford Festival of Canada, the
Guthrie Theater in
Minneapolis, Minnesota and the
Tyrone Guthrie Centre, at his family's home, Annaghmakerrig, in
County Monaghan, Ireland.
Biography
Guthrie was born in
Tunbridge Wells,
Kent,
England, the son of Dr. Thomas Guthrie (a grandson of the
Scottish preacher
Thomas Guthrie) and Norah Power. His mother Norah was the daughter of Sir William James Tyrone Power,
Commissary-General-in-chief of the
British Army from 1863 to 1869 and Martha, daughter of Dr. John Moorhead of Annaghmakerrig House.
His great-grandfather was the
Irish actor
Tyrone Power. He was also a cousin of the Hollywood actor
Tyrone Power. His sister, Susan Margaret, married his close university friend, fellow Anglo-Irishman
Hubert Butler. Butler translated the text for Guthrie's 1934 production of
Anton Chekhov's
Cherry Orchard, for perhaps the first English-language production.