The Stage

Stage columnist Patrick Newley dies

Published Monday 1 June 2009 at 13:45

Patrick Newley, The Stage columnist, author and national newspaper journalist who was press and literary representative for a variety of literary and showbusiness figures, has died aged 54.

The son of the Irish poet and playwright Patrick Galvin, Newley had been an actor and comedian, working in fringe theatre and touring the working men’s club circuit before becoming a journalist and representative to the likes of Robin Maugham, Rex Jameson, Douglas Byng and the American entertainer Jim Bailey.

A prolific freelance, his journalistic career included work for the Sun, Daily Mail and Express as well as the Oldie. He also edited the house magazine of the British Music Hall Society. But he was best known as a diary writer and obituarist for both The Times and The Stage. Since 2004, Newley had also written a popular weekly column for the paper, succeeding the late Simon Blumenfeld.

Editor Brian Attwood said: “Pat was an outstanding journalist and close friend, who combined a reporter’s instinct for a story with an abundant literary knowledge. He is very much missed.”

An obituary will appear in a later edition of The Stage.