Alan Stanford (born 1949) is an English-Irish actor, director and writer. He has worked in the theatre for many years, including a 30 year association with the Gate Theatre as both actor and director. He is well known for playing George Manning in the popular Irish drama series Glenroe. Personal life Though originally from Liverpool, Alan Stanford's childhood was spent on the Isle of Wight in the South of England. He was an only child. He trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Stanford moved to Ireland in 1969 after touring there and eventually became an Irish citizen. As of 2011 became resident in the USA and is based in Pittsburgh. Stanford's parents were John Stanford and Anne Kirkpatrick who raised him for most of his childhood in the Isle of Wight, however in 2010, aged 61, Stanford discovered that he had been adopted and that he shared a biological mother with six younger children. He has been married twice and has two sons from his second marriage. Early career As a director Stanford began his career in Ireland at the Project Arts Centre where his productions included works by Shaw, Graham Greene, Brecht, Dürrenmatt and Shakespeare. He is former Artistic Director of Second Age Theatre Company for whom he has directed many productions, including King Lear, Othello, "Hamlet","Macbeth" and Philadelphia Here I Come. He directed for the Irish Theatre Company and many other independent companies. For Storytellers (a theatre company), he directed both The Mayor of Casterbridge and Oedipus. For over thirty years Stanford was an associate of the Gate Theatre Dublin both as actor and director. At the Gate he has directed Romeo and Juliet, Tartuffe, Present Laughter twice, Pride and Prejudice, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Great Expectations twice, A Tale of Two Cities, The Collection, Lady Windermere's Fan, Cyrano de Bergerac, An Ideal Husband, A Christmas Carol, Arms and the Man, Oliver Twist, Blithe Spirit, Jane Eyre, The Constant Wife, Private Lives, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Deep Blue Sea, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Real Thing, Endgame, God of Carnage, and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Theatre roles His work as an actor includes roles from Shaw to Wilde, from Ibsen to Ayckbourn. He received a Harveys Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance as Salieri in Amadeus and was nominated