Eric Dury, the British actor and university educator who spent more than 25 years performing on UAE stages, has died.
The news was announced on Sunday in a statement shared by Alex Broun, festival director of Short+Sweet Dubai and a long-time figure in UAE theatre. Dury's age and cause of death were not disclosed.
“Eric was part of the fabric of the community: an actor who continued to perform across decades, an educator who shared his knowledge with generations of students, and a committed supporter of theatre and the people who make it,” the statement said.
Dury, who was also known as Roslee Abdullah, moved to the Emirates in 1999 and became a regular presence on the independent theatre circuit.
Much of his work was with Dubai Drama Group. The National covered his career as early as 2009, when he played businessman Sir Chiffley Lockhart in the company's production of Ben Elton's Gasping at Ductac.
That same year, he also appeared as a surgeon in Ali F Mostafa's Dubai-set feature film City of Life.
His later roles included the Player in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Stephan Chubukov in Anton Chekhov's The Proposal, both in 2014 and Max in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming in 2016.
He was also part of Dubai Drama Group's 2017 production of Hamlet, playing Polonius, the Player and the Gravedigger, and appeared in productions of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite and the pantomime Jack & the Beanstalk.
Beyond Dubai Drama Group, he played Count De Guiche in Raw Theatre's Cyrano de Bergerac, the Arms Dealer in Danu Dubai Theatre's The Al-Hamlet Summit and the Father in Bark at a Crow Productions' online staging of Ashputtel.
In 2021, he appeared as Steve in Tall Tales Productions' Just Like That, a locally written comedy about residents of Jumeirah Lakes Towers.
Dury also had a long association with Short+Sweet Dubai, the annual festival of 10-minute plays, first as a performer and later as a judge.
He won its Best Actor award in 2016 for playing Mr Hollins in New Year's Eve. A year later, he was runner-up for Best Actor for his role as Eddie in The Coming Out.
In 2025, Dury received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural DXB Theatre Awards, which celebrated performers, productions and companies across Dubai's independent theatre scene.
Alongside acting, Dury worked in English language education at the University of Sharjah and later Zayed University.
When he spoke to The National during Ramadan in 2022, he reflected on faith, family and the example he and his wife wanted to set for their daughter.
“There is a spiritual side to it as we eat together as a family after fasting during Ramadan,” he said.
“It brings meaning to our lives and it encourages my wife and I to be better people. That's because we have to both set a good example for our daughter and act as role models.”
Dury had already spent years performing and teaching before moving to the UAE.
During his time in Malaysia, he performed under the name Eric Roslee.
Archival listings from Malaysia's MY Art Memory Project, an archive of the country's performing arts, show Dury performing in Kuala Lumpur by at least 1987, when he appeared in The Tea House of the August Moon. By 1999, he was listed among the academic staff of Akademi Seni Kebangsaan, Malaysia's national arts academy, now known as Aswara
Dury is survived by his wife Shereen and daughter Tash.
His Janazah was due to be held on Sunday following Asr prayers at Al Qusais Cemetery Mosque in Dubai.
