Ben Iden Payne

Ben Iden Payne (5 September 1881 – 6 April 1976), also known as B. Iden Payne, was an English actor, director and teacher. Active in professional theatre for seventy years, he helped the first modern repertory theatre in the United Kingdom, was an early and effective advocate for Elizabethan staging of Shakespeare plays, and served as an inspiration for Shakespeare Companies and university theatre programmes throughout North America and the British Isles. A theatre at the University of Texas is named after him, as well as annual theatre awards presented in Austin, Texas.