Roy Strong is a renowned British art-historian, writer, and museum curator, who became the director at London's National Portrait Gallery at age 32, and later held a position as the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum for thirteen years.

Strong was appointed as the director of the National Portrait Gallery in 1967, after serving as its assistant keeper since 1959. He transformed the conservative image of the gallery by introducing a series of exhibitions that focused on the present culture of the 1960s and 1970s, including "600 Cecil Beaton portraits 1928-1968," which attracted large crowds and extended exhibition runs. Strong pinpointed the Beaton exhibition as a turning point in the gallery's history, with the public's overwhelming response signaling the "arrival" of the gallery as a cultural destination.

Alongside museum work, Strong has written extensively on history, art, and culture, including notable publications such as "The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy: Pageantry, Painting, Iconography" and "Beaton Portraits," published in 2004.