Early Life
Alun Armstrong was born in Annfield Plain, near Stanley, County Durham. His father was a coal miner and both his parents were Methodist lay preachers. He attended Annfield Plain Junior School and then went on to Consett Grammar School, where a teacher inspired him to try acting. In the lower sixth, he played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew – a role he would later perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He took part in the National Youth Theatre summer school in 1964, but his background and his northern accent made him feel out of place. Armstrong auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but was not accepted. He instead studied fine art at Newcastle University. He found the course pretentious and felt that he did not fit in, and he was expelled after two years because he stopped attending classes.
Armstrong had jobs with a bricklayer and as a gravedigger before he decided to try acting again. He started out by working as an assistant stage manager at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. He then went on to a Theatre in Education company affiliated with the Sheffield Repertory Theatre, and he performed in several Radio 4 dramas.
Read more about this topic: Alun Armstrong (actor)
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