He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (1964–66) and began his career as a classical stage actor. He has performed well over 100 major roles in theatres across Europe (London, Liverpool, Coventry, Paris, Lille, Copenhagen, The Hague, Madrid, Warsaw, Kraków, Moscow and St. Petersburg), Canada (eight seasons at the Stratford Festival, 1972-3, 1976-9, 1985, 1992, two seasons at the Shaw Festival, 1970, 1974, as well as Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax) and the United States (New York, Boston, New Haven, Stamford, Philadelphia, Seattle, Dallas and Los Angeles), including King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Iago, Brutus, Cassius, Petruchio, Prospero, Cyrano de Bergerac, Doctor Faustus, Luther, Uncle Vanya, Verlaine, John Barrymore in Sheldon Rosen's "Ned and Jack" and Harras in Zuckmayer's "The Devil's General". He is also a stage director whose productions have ranged from the works of Shakespeare to Albee, Brecht, Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Yevgeny Schwarz and Preston Jones.