TONY TANNER was a British stage, film and television actor and a Tony-nominated theatre director and choreographer born on this date (d: 2020).

Tanner graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art with the Douglas Cup, awarded him by Margaret Rutherford. He spent five years in northern British repertory companies, playing everything from Saint Peter to the front end of a cow in a British pantomime.

As a director, Tanner has staged and choreographed five shows on Broadway — he is best known for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, for which he received Best Director and Best Choreographer Tony Award nominations. His 1981 production of A Taste of Honey starring Amanda Plummer was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival in the same season.. Tanner directed a number of Off-Broadway plays as well.

Tanner had a theatre company in Los Angeles. to present his own written works. He appeared as Sergei Diaghelev in a one-man show he wrote titled Charlatan.

He was with his partner and eventual husband, Henry Selvitelle, for 50 years. He died at his home in Los Angeles, California in September 2020.