Anthony Royce Mills (12 May 1942 – 21 May 2019) was an English television, stage and film actor.

Life and career

Born in

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish inside the Cotswold (district), Cotswold district in Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon monastery was found ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

to Herbert Mills and concert pianist Winifred, Royce did not feel the need to look into the disappearance of his father. He and his mother moved to

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

, and he made his television debut aged 13 on the BBC’s

Children's Hour ''Children's Hour'', initially ''The Children's Hour'', was the BBC's principal recreational service for children (as distinct from "Broadcasts to Schools") which began during the period when radio was the only medium of broadcasting. ''Childre ...

in 1956. He attended

Eastbourne College Eastbourne College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging school in the English Public school (United Kingdom), public school tradition, for boarding school, boarding and Day school, day pupils aged 13–18, in ...

working in their kitchens to pay for his education. He then became an assistant to comedian Sandy Powell, getting him hung over when he filled pint glasses with beer instead of tinted water, and was fired. Sandy’s wife Kay, however, let him announce her husband’s stage entrance, for which he wore the long aprons Royce used in the kitchens in order to cover his damaged feet. He then began his longtime hobby of painting and was offered the Carleton Hobbs Bursary, but declined. In 1969 he made his acting debut in '' Oh, Brother!''. In later years he proved himself to be among the finest pantomime dames in the country, notably in his appearances at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre,

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

. He considered Morecambe and Wise to be the most generous people he had worked with, allowing him to perform Bring Me Sunshine on his own to give him a chance to shine. He also rehearsed

Frankie Howerd Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992), better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. Early life Howerd was born the son of a soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934)England & Wales, Deat ...

’s lines for '' Up Pompeii'', and improvised a sketch for '' The Les Dawson Show'' when time ran over during filming. In 1984 Royce began voicing the

Daleks The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial race of extremely xenophobic mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Na ...

in ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', after being asked by director of ''

Resurrection of the Daleks ''Resurrection of the Daleks'' is the fourth serial of the 21st season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on BBC1 between 8 February and 15 February 1984. The serial w ...

'', Matthew Robinson. He would hold his nose to perform the role, for which he maintained it was his best-known, and voiced them in

, 1985’s

Revelation of the Daleks ''Revelation of the Daleks'' is the sixth and final serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 and 30 March 1985. This was the final serial to b ...

and 1988’s Remembrance of the Daleks, although he only had the one voice that he used. He died shortly after his 77th birthday on 21 May 2019.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1942 births 2019 deaths People from Tetbury Male actors from Gloucestershire English male television actors English male film actors 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors Actors from Cotswold District www.emma-taylor-singing-and-vocal-coach.com {{UK-screen-actor-stub www.emma-taylor-singing-and-vocal-coach.com