Tony Tanner (27 July 1932 – 8 September 2020) was a British stage, film and television actor and a Tony-nominated theatre director and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Career

Training and early career

Tanner graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art with the Douglas Cup, awarded him by Margaret Rutherford. He spent five years in northern repertory companies, playing everything from Saint Peter to the front end of a cow in a British pantomime.

Acting career

Intimate revues in West End of London brought Tanner some notoriety, including an appearance in a sketch by then-unknown

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

. Later Tanner played the patsy in '' The Birthday Party,'' opposite Pinter himself, by this time known to everybody. In 1964, he starred in ''

Strictly for the Birds ''Strictly for the Birds'' is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Tony Tanner, Joan Sims and Graham Stark. Terry Blessing seems to be having a lucky day, winning at gambling, until a woman with whom he'd had an assig ...

''. He made numerous appearances in plays and variety shows on British television, including a stint as Puck in ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'', opposite Benny Hill’s ''Bottom''. All of this culminated in the role of Littlechap in '' Stop the World - I Want to Get Off'' in London’s West End, taking over for author Anthony Newley. He played the same role in Warner Brothers' film version of the show. Tanner went to America to assume the lead role in '' Half a Sixpence'' on Broadway, and remained in the U.S. Two more starring roles on Broadway followed: in '' No Sex Please, We're British'' opposite Maureen O'Sullivan, and ''

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

'' guest starring with the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

. Tanner played Iago to

Robert Guillaume Robert Guillaume (born Robert Peter Williams; November 30, 1927 – October 24, 2017) was an American actor and singer, known for his role as Benson DuBois in the ABC television series ''Soap'' and its spin-off, ''Benson'', as well as for voici ...

’s Othello at the

National Sylvan Theater The National Sylvan Theater — often simply the Sylvan Theater — is a public sylvan theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument, National Mall, in Washington, D.C., USA. It is located within the northwest corner of the 15th Street and I ...

. He had many appearances with top opera companies in the comic roles in

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

operas. Tanner's original one-man show ''Charlatan'', portraying the Ballets Russes founder Sergei Diaghilev, was the hit of the New York International Fringe Festival, and went on to the York Theatre Royal and London's King's Head Theatre in 2010.

Directing career

As a director, Tanner staged and choreographed five shows on Broadway — including ''

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (often colloquially known as ''Joseph'') is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. Thi ...

'', for which he received Best Director and Best Choreographer Tony Award nominations. His 1981 production of ''

A Taste of Honey ''A Taste of Honey'' is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 19. It was intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and address social issues that ...

'' starring Amanda Plummer was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival in the same season. Tanner directed a number of

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

plays as well. Tanner had a theatre company in Los Angeles to present his own written works.

Personal life

Tanner was with his partner and eventual husband, Henry Selvitelle, for 50 years. He died at his home in Los Angeles, California in September 2020. He was 88.

Career

Training and early career

Acting career

Directing career

Personal life

References

External links