Richard Armitage

Richard Noel Marshall Armitage (12 August 1928 – 17 November 1986) was a talent agent, active in England in the 1950s–1980s. Early life Armitage was born on 12 August 1928 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He originally planned to become a barrister and attended Eton College and King's College, Cambridge before leaving to work at the family's cake factory in Pontefract. Career Armitage's father was songwriter and music publisher Noel Gay, (born Reginald Moxon Armitage), Armitage joined his father's publishing business, and took charge when he died in 1954. Among his clients were Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, David Frost and Stephen Fry. In the late 1950s Richard set up Noel Gay Artists (NGA) in order to ensure a supply of performers for his father's compositions. In the 1960s, NGA's clients included Russ Conway, Peter & Gordon, The Scaffold, Geoff Love, Paul Jones, David Frost, and John Cleese. Producer John Lloyd described him as "the most powerful agent in the country at that time [the late 1970s]".