Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl (born Jan. 25, 1915, Auchterarder, Scot.—died Oct. 22, 1989, London, Eng.) was a British singer, songwriter, and playwright.

MacColl’s parents were singers and taught him many folk songs. He left school at 14, taking a variety of blue-collar jobs and working as a singer and actor. In 1945 he and Joan Littlewood founded Theatre Workshop; he was the company’s artistic director until 1953 and wrote a number of plays for it. MacColl was a leading figure in the British folk-song revival of the 1950s and ’60s. He and his third wife, American musician Peggy Seeger, pioneered a type of documentary, the “radio-ballad,” combining recorded interviews with songs and narration. The two published several collections of folk songs, including Till Doomsday in the Afternoon (1986). Among MacColl’s best-known songs is “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”