Michael Birkett, 2nd Baron Birkett


Michael Birkett, 2nd Baron Birkett was a British film producer/director, author and hereditary peer.

Early life and education

Michael Birkett was the only son of Norman, 1st Baron Birkett by his wife, Ruth. Birkett attended Stowe before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he completed an MA.

Succession

On 10 February 1962, Michael Birkett succeeded his father as the 2nd Baron Birkett, a UK Peerage title created in 1958.

Career

Film productions

Birkett produced Sir Peter Hall's 1969 film A Midsummer Night's Dream and Peter Brook's pictures Marat/Sade and King Lear, starring Paul Scofield. He was also executive producer of Brook's television mini-series The Mahabharata, and later produced Clive Donner production of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, starring Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Robert Shaw.

Writing

He was author of The Story of the Ring, a retelling of Wagner's operatic epic, published in 2009.

Public service and appointments

Birkett served as Deputy Director of The National Theatre between 1975 and 1977, and was subsequently engaged as a consultant and later appointed Director for Recreation and Arts at the Greater London Council. He was executive director of the Royal Philharmonic Society, chairman of BAFTA, as well as heading numerous other arts bodies. He also served as the chairman of Governors of the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, and chairman of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition.
A Freeman of the City of London, Birkett was admitted a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Curriers, later serving as Master Currier.

House of Lords

Having succeeded as Baron Birkett in 1962, he later took his seat on the Crossbenches of the Upper House. There, he was a leading proponent of a national lottery to provide extra funding for the Arts and proposed the idea in a speech before the House of Lords in 1988. Two years later he and Denis Vaughan formed the Lottery Promotion Company, solely advocating for legislation to establish a not-for-profit, privately run lottery, a proposal eventually adopted (under Prime Minister John Major in 1994.

Family

On 13 October 1960, Birkett married Mrs Junia Crawford ; Lady Birkett died in 1973. In 1978 he married Gloria Taylor, daughter of Thomas Taylor, an industrialist, and they had a son, The Hon. Thomas Birkett. Gloria, Lady Birkett, died on 10 February 2001.

Death and succession

Michael Birkett, 2nd Baron Birkett, died in 2015, at which time the family title devolved upon the 3rd and present baron, his only child and heir, Thomas Birkett, 3rd Baron Birkett, a cinematographer.

Arms

The following is information regarding the coat of arms of the late Michael Birkett, 2nd Baron Birkett.