Award-Winning Designer William Dudley Passes Away at 78

William Dudley, an innovative set and Costume Designer in the English theater scene, has passed away at the age of 78. With a career spanning more than four decades and a winner of seven Olivier Awards, Dudley's work was seen on numerous stages presented by theater and opera companies in the UK, including The National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Royal Opera, and more. 

Award-winning credits include Undiscovered Country, The Mysteries and The Critics, The Futurists, Kafka's Dick, Merry Wives of Windsor, Heartbreak House, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Amadeus, The London Cuckolds, All My Sons, and Hitchcock Blonde. In addition to his Olivier Awards, he was also honored with a BAFTA for his design work in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion.

His scenic and costume designs also made its way across the pond for New York audiences, in Broadway productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Amadeus, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, and End of the Rainbow. Some of his final design work included a 2013 production of Turgenev’s Fortune’s Fool at the Old Vic and a 2017 production of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution at London County Hall. Lucy Bailey's production of Switzerland at Ustinov Studio in 2018 would serve as his final credit. Dudley was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2021 for services to stage design in the UK.