John Michael Croft, OBE (8 March 1922 – 15 November 1986) was a British actor, ex-schoolteacher and writer who founded, and was thereafter the lifelong director of, The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Based upon his own experience of supply teaching in tough secondary modern schools he also wrote the controversial anti-corporal punishment novel Spare the Rod, which was later released as a film starring Max Bygraves.