18 Facts About Reginald Tate

Reginald Tate was an English actor and a veteran of many roles on stage, in films and on television.

Reginald Tate is remembered best as the first actor to play the television science-fiction character Professor Bernard Quatermass, in the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment.

Reginald Tate was born in Garforth, near Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and went to school in York.

Reginald Tate left the armed forces after the end of the war and studied acting at Leeds College of Music and Drama.

Reginald Tate made his first professional acting appearance at Leeds Art Theatre in 1922, and for the next four years was a resident performer both there and at the city's Little Theatre.

In 1926, Tate moved to London, with his first major role being in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Strand Theatre.

Reginald Tate had particular success with the lead role of Stanhope in R C Sherriff's play Journey's End, playing the part in a 1929 tour of Australia and New Zealand and again for a 1934 revival production at the Criterion Theatre in London.

Reginald Tate made his film debut in 1934 in Whispering Tongues, and later in the decade began to appear in the newer medium of television.

On 11 November 1937, Reginald Tate appeared as Stanhope again in a production of Journey's End made by the BBC's fledgling television service, one of its earliest major drama productions.

At the beginning of the Second World War Reginald Tate joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

Reginald Tate was given the rank of pilot officer, and by the time his service came to an end in 1944 he had been promoted to squadron leader.

Reginald Tate continued to act during the war, and performed small roles in the well-known films The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and The Way Ahead.

Reginald Tate had a top supporting role as the intelligence officer, Major Richards, in another classic British war movie, The Next of Kin.

Reginald Tate met the Austrian television director Rudolph Cartier when Cartier cast him in his BBC production of It Is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer in February 1953.

Reginald Tate was the second choice for the part of Professor Bernard Quatermass; Cartier had previously offered it to his co-star It Is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer, Andre Morell, who declined the role.

Reginald Tate however was a success in the part, and in a 1986 interview Nigel Kneale named him as his favourite of all the actors to have played the character.

Reginald Tate began to spend much of his spare time teaching acting classes at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, feeling that he had experience which might be useful to younger actors.

Reginald Tate had suffered a heart attack, and despite being rushed to hospital in Putney he died soon afterwards.