John Van Eyssen

Matthew John Du Toit Van Eyssen (born 19 March 1922 – 13 November 1995) was a South African actor, literary agent, and film production executive who spent most of his professional life in the United Kingdom. He served as the head of the Grade Organisation’s literary agency, and was later the UK Managing Director for Columbia Pictures.

Van Eyssen was born in the town of Fauresmith, Free State (South Africa) in 1922. He served in the South African Army during the Second World War. He moved to the UK after his discharge to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Eyman was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during its 1948 season. He played Rosencrantz in Hamlet, opposite Paul Scofield as the title character. In 1951, he played Cassio in Orson Welles' 1951 production of Othello.

In 1951 and in 1954 he played the role of Lucifer in the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, first revived in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain.

Van Eyssen appeared in films from 1950 as well as on stage (including Hammer Films' Quatermass 2 and Four-Sided Triangle), but he achieved his greatest fame as an actor when he portrayed Jonathan Harker in the Hammer Film Productions version of Dracula (released as Horror of Dracula in the US) in 1958.

He left acting in 1961 to become head of the Grade Organisation literary agency. His subsequent clients were Franco Zeffirelli, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. He left the business in 1965 to work for the UK division of Columbia Pictures, eventually becoming Managing Director in July 1969. Among the films he oversaw were A Man for All Seasons (1966), Born Free (1966), Georgy Girl (1966), To Sir, with Love (1967), The Taming of The Shrew (1967), and Oliver! (1968). Both Oliver! and A Man for All Seasons won Best Picture Academy Awards. In 1970, he was promoted to Worldwide Head of Production (ex-USA) and moved to New York.

After his tenure at Columbia, Van Eyssen became an independent producer, returning to the UK in 1991 to establish Britain's premier showcase for talented young filmmakers, the Chelsea Film Festival.

Van Eyssen was longtime companion of Ingrid Bergman in the years before her death in 1982. His son, David Van Eyssen, is a visual artist, and a producer-director known for the science fiction streaming series RCVR.

Aged 73, Van Eyssen died in Fulham, London on 13 November 1995.