ONE of Canberra’s most distinctive actors and directors, Jasan Savage, died peacefully on February 26 after a long struggle with illness. He was 76.

Savage was well-known to Canberra audiences for his precise, eccentric character parts on stage and as the director who headed up the now-defunct University of Canberra-based Players Company and brought café theatre to the campus for many years, more often than not bringing back favourite British TV comedies such as “Fawlty Towers” and “Are You Being Served?” on to the stage before willing audiences.

As a member of Canberra Repertory Society he often trod the boards in classic British roles, like that of the murderous judge in  Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.”

Savage, born in Melbourne in 1937, enjoyed a long association with the ANU’s Papermoon productions, and also on his own devised a touring one-man show in which he played Henry Lawson.

A funeral will be held at Norwood Park Crematorium, 10.30am ,on Wednesday, March 5.