Bennett Wood, Memphis theater and advertising legend, has died

"If anyone knows the many faces of Bennett Wood, it's the Memphis playgoer," wrote Whitney Smith of The Commercial Appeal, in 1986.

"Hundreds of them have seen (Wood) as the surly uncle in 'Nicholas Nickleby,' the psychiatrist in 'Equus,' the English professor in 'Angels Fall,' or the man with two wives in 'Blithe Spirit.'

"They know he can make them laugh, cry or think twice."

Wood was more than a familiar face to theatergoers. A resident of Memphis for some 80 years, he was a stage legend, as an actor and a director and one of the creative forces who helped sustain Theatre Memphis for decades, going back as far as the 1950s, when the company was known as Memphis Little Theatre.

"Bennett Wood WAS Memphis theatre," Theatre Memphis representatives posted on social media Tuesday. "He was always the smartest, most gentlemanly man in the room. As a mentor to innumerable thespians and core theatre professionals, his firm but gentle way brought out the best in everyone."

Wood was equally significant in the Memphis advertising community, spending close to 40 years with various agencies until his 1994 retirement from Archer/Malmo.

Wood, 91, died Sunday in League City, Texas, at a senior living center where he recently had moved to be closer to family.

He was remembered as one of the city's most talented, dedicated and ubiquitous champions of local theater, even as he primarily earned a living via another means of audience communication, the ad industry.

A 'passion for words'

Bennett Taylor Wood was born in Mooreville, Mississippi, the son of a streetcar driver (Ben Tillman Wood) and a homemaker (Charleen Taylor Wood).

When Wood was a child, the family moved to Memphis, where Wood attended Messick High School. An avid reader who devoured the fictional adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson and the Hardy Boys (Bennett was a Boy Scout) along with the true-life exploits of the celebrated Memphis world traveler Richard Halliburton, Wood was encouraged in both literature and drama by sympathetic high school teachers. He earned a scholarship from Yale University, and — after a stint in the Army — returned to Memphis with a degree in English.

A master of wordplay, Wood for 37 years was a copywriter and later an executive for such agencies as Greenhaw & Rush, Caldwell/Bartlett/Wood, John Malmo and Archer/Malmo. But what The Commercial Appeal called his "passion for words" found arguably its greatest expression through Memphis theater, beginning in the 1950s.

Wood said he approached his vocation (advertising) and his avocation (theater) with a similar viewpoint. "Every good ad makes one point… it gets across one idea," he said. "And if I'm noted for anything in theater, it's economy — trying to do the most with the least, looking for the moment or gesture that's expressive without being excessive."

Wood acted and directed at Ballet Memphis, Front Street Theater and in the Memphis Shakespeare Festival. At the school that later would be known as Rhodes College, he acted with and directed a company called the Center Players, and later created and directed musical revues to raise funds for the college's McCoy Theatre. He taught at the school, and also authored the 1998 book "Rhodes 150," to celebrate the college's 150th anniversary.

However, Wood was most devoted to Theatre Memphis, where he began as a volunteer in 1952. The association lasted close to 70 years. A longtime board member, Wood directed 23 productions and acted in 70, but he would do whatever was needed, from building scenery to operating lights.

'I lasted in theater because I didn't go into it professionally'

Although not trained in music, Wood had a special love for musical theater, especially for the work of such sophisticated writers as Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter and the Gershwins. "I have almost a missionary attitude toward" the great songwriters, he told The Commercial Appeal. He tackled some of the most famous roles in the form, playing, for example, Henry Higgins in a 1975 production of "My Fair Lady."

In January, Theatre Memphis staged a "Sondheim Celebration Tribute," and dedicated the revue to Wood.

"If it had not been for him casting me in my first show, 'The World Goes ‘Round', at Theatre Memphis in 1999, I would not have the greatest privilege and pleasure to be at Theatre Memphis today," said Debbie Litch, now the theater's executive producer.

She called Wood a "cherished friend" who was "never one to be afraid to get his hands dirty," chipping in wherever needed.

Wood was awarded numerous honors related to theater, including, in 1993, the Eugart Yerian Lifetime Achievement Award for Memphis theater, and, in 2011, the Robert E. Gard Superior Volunteer Award from the American Association of Community Theatre.

"I lasted in theater because I didn't go into it professionally," Wood told The Commercial Appeal in 1994. "I lasted under my own terms. It was never the source of my income, so it didn't burn out for me."

He also occasionally appeared on television and on the big screen. His credits included the 1978 made-for-TV movie "A Real American Hero," which cast Brian Dennehy as Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser; Memphis director Steven John Ross' 1985 adaptation of the Peter Taylor short story, "The Old Forest"; and "The People vs. Larry Flynt," a 1996 made-in-Memphis movie with Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love and Edward Norton that was directed by two-time Oscar-winner Milos Forman.

He also contributed voice-over narration to a number of documentary projects directed by local filmmaker Willy Bearden that still can be heard at such attractions as the Cotton Museum of Memphis, the Elvis Presley Birthplace in Tupelo and the Tunica RiverPark & Museum.

Wood leaves two sisters, Elizabeth Hancock of League City and Linda Kleinworth of Charlotte.

The family said no services are planned, but donations in his memory can be made to Theatre Memphis at theatrememphis.org/donate. Also, one could read a murder mystery or pet a cat: Wood loved both those things.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Bennett Wood dies: Memphis theater and advertising legend was 91