Sam Wanamaker
1919 - 1993 
The project to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe was initiated by the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker. During a visit to London in 1949 he was disappointed to find that the only memorial to Shakespeare at the site of the Globe was a plaque on a brewery wall. In 1970 he founded what was to become The Shakespeare Globe Trust, whose mission  was to reconstruct the theatre and to create an education centre and permanent exhibition dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare in performance. After 23 years of tireless fundraising on behalf of the trust, Sam Wanamaker died, the building site having been secured, the exhibition undercroft structurally complete and a few timber bays of the Globe in place. In 1997, three and a half years after Sam's death, the theatre and its ancillary buildings were completed.