Rodney Seaborn grew up in Sydney, attending The King's School, Parramatta. He studied law in Sydney before taking up studies in medicine at the University of London. Seaborn specialised in psychiatry and, returning to Australia, set up practice in Macquarie Street, Sydney. In 1956 he founded Alanbrook Private Psychiatric Hospital.
In 1986 Seaborn established the Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation. One of the Foundation's earliest acts was to purchase the Stables Theatre, Kings Cross, thereby ensuring the survival of Griffin Theatre (q.v.). Over subsequent decades the Foundation supported a range of theatre and arts organisations including Belvoir Street the Australian National Playwrights' Centre and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) (qq.v).
Seaborn was a life governor of NIDA and in 2006 received a lifetime achievement award at the Sydney Theatre Awards.
(Source: 'Just Outside the Limelight' by Jacqui Taffel, Sydney Morning Herald, 18-19 March 2006)
