Early years Dean was born on 27 September 1888 in
Croydon, Surrey, the younger son and second of the four children of Harding Hewar Dean (1855–1942), a cigarette manufacturer, and his wife, Elizabeth Mary Winton. He was educated at
Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon. According to his entry in ''
Who's Who in the Theatre'' he was originally intended for a career in the diplomatic service, but he trained as an "analytical scientist" before working for two years on the
London Stock Exchange. After appearing in amateur theatricals, Dean made his first professional appearance on the stage at the Opera House,
Cheltenham in September 1906, as Trip in
The School for Scandal. He toured in Shakespeare and other plays and then he joined
Annie Horniman's new repertory company in Manchester in 1907, remaining with it for four years in a wide range of plays from the 16th to the 20th centuries. In 1911 Dean directed an experimental theatre season in
Liverpool. That year he became the first director of the
Liverpool Repertory Theatre (later the Playhouse), where he put on plays by
John Galsworthy,
Harold Brighouse, and
Harley Granville-Barker. At the same time he was technical adviser for stage-construction at the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, which opened in 1913. He was gazetted captain in 1916, and in January 1917 he was transferred to the
War Office in London to head the entertainment branch of the Navy and Army Canteen Board (later the
Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes), Gielgud's biographer,
Jonathan Croall, wrote of Dean: In 1924, Dean took on the joint managing directorship with
Alfred Butt of the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with the aim, much mocked at the time, of establishing a national theatre there. ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream, was successful, but, according to The Times'', "did his reputation as a director of poetic drama no good". His colleagues' insistence on importing an American musical provoked his resignation within twelve months. and Fields's biographer David Bret writes that Dean was "positively renowned for his complete lack of sense of humour". In the late 1930s, Dean fell out with Ealing Studios, where his colleagues felt that he was neglecting films in favour of his theatrical work; he was obliged to resign. Dean ignored his critics and formed an alliance with the comedian and theatre owner
Leslie Henson, who had been a leading figure in entertainments for the troops in the First World War. Dean worked with Henson and other experts in their theatrical or musical spheres, including Black (now firmly behind Dean's ideas),
Lena Ashwell,
Harold Holt,
Jack Hylton,
Sir Harry Lauder and
Dame Sybil Thorndike, organising entertainment in Britain and overseas for the troops and civilians throughout the war. Dean's biographer
James Roose-Evans writes, "during six and a half years more than 80 per cent of the entertainments industry gave [ENSA] service in innumerable performances of plays, revues, and concerts". His productions overseas included
Hassan for the National Theatre Organisation of South Africa (1950) and for Dublin International Drama Festival (1960) and
Graham Greene's
The Heart of the Matter, Boston (1950). ==Cinema work==