Trivia

Was prevented from accepting his best actor award in Cannes for "A Taste of Honey" because he was then appearing in a Keith Waterhouse/Willis Hall revue on the London stage and the management would not release him.

British stage actor often utilized by director Ken Russell for his films.

Best known for his role as gay textile design student Geoffrey Ingham in A Taste of Honey, opposite Rita Tushingham. It garnered him the Best Actor Award at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.

Appeared in the first ever episode of The Avengers.

In 2007, he narrated Tales of the Supernatural Volume 3 by M. R. James for Fantom Films. This was followed in 2009 by M.R. James - A Ghost Story for Christmas, and in 2011 and 2012 by two recordings of Wilkie Collins: Supernatural Stories, Volumes 2 & 3 and The Dark Shadows Legend :The Happier Dead.

He turned down a CBE in protest at the British government's treatment of the Windrush generation.

Spent two years of National Service with the Royal Air Force.

Dropped out of school, aged 14, and was first employed as an office boy for a firm of travel agents off Oxford Street.

Began his career with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop as as "a general dogsbody, making tea and sweeping the stage". By 1957, he had progressed to working as an assistant stage manager and also made his acting debut on the stage in a production of Macbeth.

Recipient in 1992 of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.".

Heavily associated with the films of his friend Ken Russell, most notable appearances in The Devils, The Boy Friend, Lisztomania (as Hector Berlioz) and Prisoner of Honour.

To help channel the energies of the young after the disturbing times of the war, his parents had helped to found a youth club in Hampstead, financed by the Co-operative Society of which they were longstanding members. A drama section formed with Melvin its most enthusiastic participant.

Theatre director, a founding member of the Actors' Centre and its chairman for four years.Between 1991 and 2011, he was a board member of the Theatre Royal. From 1992, he also served as the Theatre Royal's voluntary archivist/.

He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).

On 18 July 2013, he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts by De Montfort University and in July 2015 he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Essex. In September 2016 he received an Honorary Fellowship from the Rose Bruford College.

His parents were Hugh Victor Melvin and Maisie Winifred, née Driscoll.