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He was born on 20 August 1905 at 118 Kirkland Street, Maryhill, Glasgow, the fourth of the six children of James Macrae (1871?1945), a sergeant in the Glasgow police force, and his wife, Catherine Graham (1869?1938). He grew up in a strict Presbyterian background, rooted in the highland traditions of his grandparents, but in his later years religion only figured peripherally. Educated at Allan Glen's School, he matriculated in the engineering faculty at Glasgow University in 1923?4, but did not graduate. He trained as a teacher at Jordanhill College of Education from 1925 to 1927, and taught until 1943.
During the 1930s Macrae moved freely in Glasgow's left-wing intellectual and artistic circles. He became involved with its flourishing amateur theatre movement, where the influence of K. S. Stanislavsky's dramatic theories encouraged productions of Maksim Gorky, Henrik Ibsen, and Anton Chekhov. He headed the Project Company in 1934, then directed with the Glasgow Arts Theatre Group. He created the title role in Robert McLellan's Jamie the Saxt for the Curtain company in 1937, and was the club's leading actor until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. As a conscientious objector, he was granted exemption from military service. He joined Molly Urquhart's company MSU in 1942?3, and played leading roles in plays by J. M. Barrie, J. Bridie, and J. B. Priestley. He married Margaret (Peggy) Scott (1907?1971), a teacher, in Glasgow in 1943. They had two daughters, Ann, born in 1945, and Christine, in 1948.
Encouraged by James Bridie and Alastair Sim, Macrae turned professional in 1943. An original member of the newly founded Glasgow Citizens' Theatre Company, he gradually rose to prominence as a leading player. In a repertory which encompassed Shakespeare, Ibsen, Shaw, and Bridie, his most notable roles were Donald MacAlpine in Bridie's The Forrigan Reel (1944), Inspector Goole in Priestley's An Inspector Calls (1947), Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Flatterie/Pardoner in Robert Kemp's The Three Estates (an adaptation of David Lindsay's sixteenth-century morality play) at the Edinburgh Festival (1948), Harry Magog in Bridie's Gog and Magog, the dame in The Tintock Cup (1949; also by Bridie, under the pseudonym A. P. Kellock), and the title role in Molière's Tartuffe (1951). The shift to pantomime at the Glasgow Alhambra in 1950?51 marked the beginning of a run of eight pantomimes, Christmas revues, and many other variety engagements, including ?white heather? tours to America (1960), Canada (1961), and Australia and New Zealand (1962), and 1045 and a' that, at the Edinburgh Festival (1966). He transferred effortlessly from legitimate stage to variety and back.
Between 1952 and 1955, financially secure as a result of pantomime, Macrae formed the company Scottishshows in partnership with the playwright Tim Watson. Macrae as actor?manager toured Scotland with a different Scottish play each year. In 1956 he headed one of two repertory companies?the second was led by Stanley Baxter?formed by Henry Sherek to alternate between the King's, Glasgow, and the Lyceum, Edinburgh. Between 1957 and 1959 he appeared for the Citizens', Perth Theatre Company, Edinburgh Gateway, Dundee Repertory, and Jimmy Logan's Metropole in a varied selection of plays, including The Flouers o' Edinburgh by R. M. McLellan, and Dr Angelus and Let Wives Tak Tent (both by Bridie). His London appearances included roles in Bridie's The Forrigan Reel at Sadler's Wells (1945), Let Wives Tak Tent at the Embassy (1949), Bridie's Mr Bolfry at the Aldwych (1956), Ionesco's Rhinoceros at the Royal Court and the Strand (1960), and Molière's L'avare at the Mermaid (1966). He toured in Joe Orton's Loot (1965). His last stage performance was in Aristophanes' The Burdies at the Edinburgh Festival in 1966.
In 1946 Macrae took the leading role in his first film, The Brothers. He went on to appear in a further fifteen films, mainly in supporting roles, including Whisky Galore (1948), Greyfriars Bobby (1960), and Tunes of Glory (1960). His major success was as the grandfather in The Kidnappers (1953). In the earlier part of his career Macrae broadcast regularly in radio drama productions, panel games, and variety shows. From 1958, adding to impressive critical and popular acclaim in both legitimate theatre and variety, he worked increasingly in television. In 1959 he created the title role in the Para Handy series. The recitation The Wee Cock Sparra, on the BBC Hogmanay party in the same year, confirmed his celebrity. He became familiar in The Avengers, The Prisoner, Dr Finlay's Casebook, revues and chat shows such as Better Late, and in one particularly popular porridge advert. Songs, poems, and play extracts were commercially recorded by Scottish Records and released by EMI.
Duncan Macrae figured significantly in the history of Scottish theatre, championing the national drama cause, improving the profession's working conditions, and fearlessly challenging the establishment. He was appointed first chairman of Scottish Equity in 1953, a position he held until his death. He wrote many articles and was in constant demand as a speaker. His pamphlet Be Not Too Tame Neither, on the state of the arts in Scotland, was published in November 1965 by the Federation of Theatre Unions. Most of his recommendations were adopted. Despite some notoriety over allegedly selfish practices on stage, and although lacking in technical training, his instinctive acting, coupled with an acknowledged genius for comedy, produced a provocative but mesmeric style that influenced a generation of actors.
Macrae's strikingly tall, lean figure, angular face, and voice bearing traces of his Gaelic ancestry matched a singular if eccentric personality. He was devoted to his family, healthy exercise, Scotland, and the theatre. He died from a brain tumour on 23 March 1967 at the Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow. He was cremated at Linn crematorium, Glasgow, on 30 March. Two weeks later, the ashes were buried at Kippen, Stirlingshire.
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