John Malcolm’s zest for innovative drama led him to be one of the founders of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and The Theatre in Chipping Norton. He was also an actor, appearing in cameo roles in many TV dramas of the Seventies.

His contribution to the creation of the Traverse in 1962 cannot be overestimated. While Jim Haynes was the original moving spirit of the theatre, Malcolm and several others helped to make it happen. The venture reflected a desire to create a permanent fringe theatre in Edinburgh and mirror the new writing then being seen in the Royal Court Theatre in London.

The Theatre in Chipping Norton, which Malcolm started in 1974 with his then wife, Tamara, was an altogether smaller operation, but has become a much loved arts centre.

John Malcolm was born in Stirling and after going to the local school did his National Service in Hong Kong. He then gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was working at the Pitlochry Festival in the summer of 1961 when he visited the Edinburgh Fringe.

What would become the Traverse Theatre was a former brothel in James Court in the Lawnmarket known fondly as Kelly’s Paradise or Hell’s Kitchen. The origins of the Traverse are complex. It was started by the ebullient American Haynes, in his Paperback Bookshop near the university. He organised productions during the Festivals of 1960 and 1961 then in 1962 mounted Ane Tryall of Heretiks by Fionn MacColla.

At the last minute one of the actors became ill. Haynes spoke to a local agent and Malcolm was sent. It was not a leading part, but he performed it well and it was one of the hits of the 1962 Festival. Malcolm then discovered that Haynes was planning to create a theatre club in Edinburgh that would run all year round.

Haynes and Malcolm had seen two Cambridge undergraduates, John Cleese and Tim Brooke-Taylor, perform in a space in James Court in the Lawnmarket. Haynes offered the landlord a rent of one shilling a year and the post of the club’s president.

Malcolm became involved with the project and fulfilled an important role in fitting out the tiny space, including installing the seats they had bought from a nearby cinema.

There was seating for only 60 people, and the audience sat on each side of the acting area; the name Traverse came about because the audience had to traverse the auditorium. The theatre opened in January 1963 with Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Malcolm was a feisty and combative character who easily upset his colleagues. But his enthusiasm was inspiring, and his imagination and powers of persuasion key to the theatre’s success.

After a brief period on television (appearing in Dr Finlay’s Casebook and Crossroads) Malcolm worked for the RSC at Stratford in John Barton’s The Wars of the Roses. At Stratford he met his wife and the couple started the theatre at Chipping Norton, initially mounting pantomimes in the town hall.

With the funds raised, he converted a former Salvation Army Citadel into a charming small-scale theatre where he presented home-grown productions and touring companies. There was a thriving exhibition space and the theatre soon became a valuable meeting place in the Cotswolds.

In 1977 he and his wife separated andMalcolm returned to acting. He was cast in a prestigious revival of Joe Orton’s Loot (directed by Kenneth Williams) in 1980 at the Lyric, Hammersmith.

He was often cast in character roles and appeared in When the Boat Comes In, The Naked Civil Servant, and Pennies from Heaven on television. He also carved out a reputation for playing Nazis in films such as The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission and David Hemmings’s The Key to Rebecca.

Malcolm returned to live in Edinburgh a decade ago and is survived by his daughter and son.

John Malcolm, actor and co-founder of the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, was born on March 26, 1936. He died on June 13, 2008, aged 72