Miles Sorstin

Miles Sorstin (January 3, 1924 – April 8, 1979). British-born actor/playwright whose outré performances with Newcastle’s famed “Bard Darnit” company caught the eye of London-based director Ernest Colme, who brought Sorstin to the West End stage to star in his controversial “Easy Does It” (1962). Despite that play’s notorious critical failure, Sorstin’s ostentatious performance was well-received, and noticed by visiting Hollywood impresario Evan Fine.

This led to Sorstin’s one and only film appearance, in Darnton Esbruque’s “Wanting Moira, But Lately” (1968). That film’s failure with both the critics and the public precipitated Sorstin’s well-documented bout with drugs and alcohol, and his subsequent withdrawal from public life, as related in his memoir “Were It Me” (1974). After the failure of “Moira”, Sorstin’s remaining years were spent in and out of mental hospitals.

During his lucid moments, and with the encouragement of confidante and “Moira” co-star Abby Houdt, Sorstin transposed his memoir into a stage play. He died alone in a Fogo, Scotland bedsit, 8 April, 1979. Though not staged during Sorstin’s lifetime, “Were It Me” was posthumously launched at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1988, and, receiving positive notices, a long London run followed.

Director Robert Altman was reportedly negotiating for film rights to the play shortly before his death in 2006.