Blanche Marvin (1925–2026) was an enduring presence in British theatre, best known in later life as one of London’s most tireless critics. Well into her nineties she was still attending press nights, filing reviews on her website and rating productions with her own star system.

Her authority as a critic rested on a lifetime spent inside theatre. Born Blanche Zohar in New York, she left home at 14 and began acting in the 1940s, appearing on Broadway and in films including Quo Vadis?. She moved easily between acting, producing and literary work, and in 1950 married the producer, Mark Marvin. After his death in 1958, she became a leading figure in off-Broadway theatre, serving as artistic director of the Cricket Theatre in New York and championing new writers such as Edward Albee and Athol Fugard, while also founding a children’s theatre company.

Relocating to London in 1968, Marvin ran literary departments at major agencies before establishing the Blanche Marvin Agency, where she represented and encouraged emerging playwrights. Her lifelong commitment to experimentation found its clearest expression in the Empty Space (later Peter Brook) Awards, which she founded in 1991 to recognise fringe theatre. For many years she funded the awards herself, determined that innovative work should be seen and supported.

It was only in the late 1980s that she turned fully to reviewing, launching Blanche Marvin’s London theatreviews online. She attended theatre almost nightly, became a familiar figure at the Edinburgh Festival — once seeing 21 performances in a single day — and was admired for both her stamina and her independence of mind. Her flamboyant clothes, forthright opinions and intolerance of theatrical gimmickry were as much a part of her legend as her encyclopaedic memory.

Awarded an honorary MBE in 2010 for services to theatre, Blanche Marvin remained passionately engaged with live performance until the end of her life. She died on January 13, 2026, aged 100.