Murray Melvin is an English stage and film actor noted for his work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. Born in north London, Melvin left secondary school at the age of fourteen and started work as an office boy for a firm of travel agents off Oxford Street, London. He later spent two unhappy years of National Service in the Royal Air Force. He later attended evening classes at the nearby City Literary Institute where he studied drama, mime and classical Ballet. He applied to Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and auditioned on stage singing and dancing for Joan Littlewood and Gerry Raffles. In February 1959, he played the part of Geoffrey in "A Taste of Honey" when it opened at the Wyndham's Theatre and then transferred to the Criterion. Melvin went on to play the role in the film version, for which he won the Prix de Cannes as best actor at the festival in 1962. He is the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).