Theatre director, playwright and actor Peter Gill has died at the age of 86, with tributes describing him as a "gentle man with a fierce intelligence" who had a "quietly seismic" influence on British theatre. Cardiff-born Gill began his career as an actor, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in films such as HMS Defiant and Zulu, before moving into directing and writing, where he became closely associated with the Royal Court Theatre in London and is credited with reviving interest in the plays of DH Lawrence.

Born in Cardiff on 7 September 1939, Gill championed three of Lawrence's works at the Royal Court and later became the theatre's associate director in 1970, before serving as artistic director of Riverside Studios from 1976 and founding the National Theatre Studio in 1984. He was appointed OBE in 1980 for his services to theatre. Tributes came from his agent Mel Kenyon, theatre director Michael Grandage, and Welsh actor Luke Evans, who credited Gill with transforming his career after casting him in a 2008 production of Small Change.