Ken Campbell; maverick actor wrote, directed British theater

LONDON - Ken Campbell, a maverick British actor, writer, and director whose career ranged from sitcom roles to a 22-hour stage extravaganza, has died, his agent said yesterday. He was 66.

Mr. Campbell was found dead Sunday at his home in Epping Forest, east of London, said Nicki Stoddart of United Agents. The cause of death has not been determined.

Mr. Campbell had recently returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he performed in a typically anarchic work titled "Showstopper! The Improvised Musical."

Mr. Campbell was an eccentric talent whose obituary in The Guardian newspaper proclaimed him "one of the strangest people in Britain." One of his plays was titled "I'm Not Mad, I've Just Read Different Books."

Stoddart said Mr. Campbell's genius lay in "the excesses of his imagination allied to his extraordinary discipline and intelligence."

"He just wove magic. He was a true original," she said.

Born in Ilford, east London, in 1941, Mr. Campbell attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the training ground of Britain's thespian elite.

"I can write a bit. I can direct, but I only really enjoy directing something nobody else will," he once said. "I don't want to join the who-can-do-'The-Cherry-Orchard'-best competition."