The Old Vic
He made his stage debut in 1937 as the Club Waiter in "The Island" at the Q Theatre, reprising the role at the Comedy Theatre in 1938. Later in 1937 Tyrone Guthrie, the director of The Old Vic, cast Ottaway as a Messenger alongside a young Laurence Olivier in the title role in "Macbeth". Ottaway subsequently toured with the Old Vic company during 1940 and 1941.