TennielEvans

Jun 18 2009 by William Leece, Liverpool Daily Post

RADIO fame can be a double-edged thing for an actor. It can allow them to go about their daily life unmolested with a degree of privacy, yet they may have to remind people occasionally as to who they actually are.

As Able Seaman Taffy Goldstein, in The Navy Lark, Tenniel Evans was one of the most familiar voices of British radio comedy in the 1960s and 70s.

But, despite frequent television and stage appearances, he managed to avoid star status, describing himself as a “journeyman actor”, respected within the business for his dedication and professionalism.

He had been born in Kenya in the colonial years, with family links both to Mary Anne Evans – the novelist George Eliot – and the Victorian artist and Alice illustrator Sir John Tenniel.

He arrived in Britain, aged 10, with a scholarship to boarding school and resident during the holidays with a relative who was a rector in Warwickshire.

After leaving school, he first went into the Army, training as an officer at Sandhurst, but had to leave on health grounds.

He took a degree in German and economics, supported by an ex-service grant, but discovered his true vocation was to be on the stage. He then studied at Rada, and secured his first professional part in the York Mystery Plays during the Festival of Britain in 1951.

He combined work in provincial rep with occasional teaching right through the 1950s, until his ability to put on a convincing Welsh accent earned him the role of Able Seaman Goldstein, complete with catchphrase “starboard lookout here”.

Running alongside this, he was in a string of character parts on television, ranging from a part in Dr Who opposite his friend and Navy Lark colleague, Jon Pertwee, to Adolf Hitler in the 1970 drama, The Roads to Freedom.

He worked with Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge in the Actors Company, but brought down the curtain on his stage career in 1985 when he took holy orders, although he continued with occasional television roles up to 2004.

Tenniel Evans, actor; born, May 17, 1926,died, June 10, 2009