Tony Walton

Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, on 24 October 1934. His father, Lancelot, was an orthopedic surgeon and his mother, Hilda, was a homemaker. He fell in love with the theatre as child when on a family trip to a pantomime. as a trainee pilot in Ontario, Canada. After completing his National Service, he headed to New York to join Julie Andrews, who was making a name for herself on Broadway. ==Career==

He began his career in 1957 with the stage design for Noël Coward's off-Broadway production of Conversation Piece. In December 2005, for their annual birthday celebration to 'The Master', The Noël Coward Society invited Walton as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 106th birthday of Sir Noël. ''' Inspiration for Disney's Winnie the Pooh ''' Walton gave the Sherman Brothers the insight and inspiration for songs in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, as the Brothers explained in their joint autobiography, ''Walt's Time'': ==Personal life and death==

Walton married his childhood sweetheart Julie Andrews in 1959, and together they had a daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. Walton said that he fell in love with Andrews when they were children and he saw her playing the egg in a theatre production of Humpty Dumpty. They divorced in 1968 but remained close friends. Walton, Andrews, and their daughter worked together professionally several times, with Walton illustrating several children's books written by Andrews and their daughter. Walton married Gen LeRoy in 1991. He died from complications of a stroke at his apartment in New York City on 2 March 2022, at the age of 87. == Credits ==

Film Television Theatre Walton later diversified into directing, with productions of: • Orson Welles' Moby Dick—Rehearsed, 2005 • Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, 1996 • Noël Coward In Two Keys, 1996 • George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara, 1997 • Missing Footage, 1999 • Ooops! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show, 1999 • ''Where's Charley?'', 2004 • After the Ball, 2004 • Busker Alley, 2006 ==Awards and nominations==

Academy Awards Emmy Awards Tony Awards ==References==