British director Davies dead

Olivier Award-winning British theatre director Howard Davies, who had hits in London and Broadway directing Kathleen Turner in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Lindsay Duncan in “Private Lives,” and Kevin Spacey in both “A Moon for the Misbegotten” and “The Iceman Cometh,” has died. He was 71.

His family said in a statement Wednesday that Davies died Tuesday following a short battle with cancer.

In Britain he won the coveted Best Director Laurence Olivier Awards three times for his work on “The Iceman Cometh,” “All My Sons” and “The White Guard” in 2011. He was nominated for a total of six Oliviers.

On Broadway, he was nominated three times for Tony Awards for his work on Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” in 2002, “The Iceman Cometh” in 1999 and “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” in 1987.

A National Theatre statement called him “one of the very greatest” directors of his generation. He directed a remarkable 36 productions at the National Theatre during a 28-year stretch, beginning with Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 1988.

National Theatre director Rufus Norris said Davies had achieved “almost legendary status” in show business, particularly for his work on American, Russian and Irish plays. Davies’ revival of “The Crucible,” starring Tom Wilkinson and Zoe Wanamaker, honoured Arthur Miller’s 75th birthday at the National.

He had been working on a production of “Wild Honey” at the Hampstead Theatre in north London at the time of his death.