mariocki:

RIP Dudley Sutton (6.4.1933 – 15.9.2018)

An instantly recognisable figure in his many, many appearances on screens small and large, with his wiry figure and shock of curly hair, Dudley Sutton – who has died, aged 85 – was the archetypal character actor. He was rarely a lead, but in more than 150 credited roles he carved for himself a long career of solid support roles and mischievous scene-stealing.

Born into a working class family in Surrey, in 1933, Sutton’s early years were characterised by youthful rebellion and a sense of being an outsider. Winning a place in a Hertfordshire boarding school, the young Dudley was instantly an outsider – his social background being markedly different to his fellow pupils. His cherubic features probably didn’t help matters, and his first taste of the stage was playing a female role in a school production. He was, however, smitten with acting. He continued to act in his first job, having joined the RAF straight from school. It was here that he was first encouraged in his chosen path, as an RAF education officer pushed him to apply for RADA.

He did, and was enrolled in 1955, but again he was to feel like an outsider looking in; RADA was still, at this point, a very elitist school. The plays studied only served to reinforce class prejudices, and the structure was distinctly hierarchical. Sutton quickly began to lose faith in the school, pursuing his own interests – reading philosophy, listening to rock music and generally being drawn to the Soho scene of the late 1950’s. He took a job in a coffee bar, befriended teddy boys and smoked weed. Perhaps inevitably, he was dismissed from RADA.

It might have been the best thing that could have happened to him. Some time earlier, Dudley had visited Joan Littlewood’s now legendary Theatre Workshop; he was now free to join the company. These were exciting times in British theatre, and Sutton found himself working with contemporaries like Yootha Joyce and Richard Harris, and befriending playwrights Joe Orton and Brendan Behan. His relationship with Littlewood herself was tempestuous – he thought her sentimental, she dismissed his public schooling and, ironically, middle class sensibilities – but professionally he was flourishing. He was Malcolm, to Harris’ Macbeth, in a production that played the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1957, and was part of the original cast in Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the New Arts in 1964.

The latter play had some significance for Sutton (“To fight the demon of homophobia with a West End comedy was brilliant”): although not gay himself, the actor had made numerous gay friends and, seeing them belittled and humiliated publicly, became a passionate supporter of legalising homosexuality. Two notable early film roles showed the courage of his convictions – in The Boys (1962) and The Leather Boys (1964), both for director Sidney J. Furie. The later film, in particular, is now considered a landmark in queer cinema, with Sutton playing a gay biker whose unrequited love for the male lead drives much of the action.

Film roles were, however, fairly scarce. At this point, Dudley began to carve out his place as a TV guest star extraordinaire; there was a well received villainous turn in The Saint (1964; Roger Moore later named him as his favourite villain), a nuanced role as a troubled young boxer in The Human Jungle (2.5, Ring Of Hate, 1965), and appearances in The Baron (1967), The Avengers (You’ll Catch Your Death, 1968) and a wonderfully unbalanced gangster in Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) (1.18, Could You Recognise The Man Again?, 1970 – reuniting him with Mr. Sloane costar Madge Ryan).

Film roles did follow – notable support in Ken Russell’s cause célèbre The Devils (1971) and Fellini’s Casanova (1976) as well as genre fare like Madame Sin (1972), No. 1 Of The Secret Service (1977) and The Island (1980) – but Sutton was best served by his TV work. There were episodes of Thriller and The Sweeney (both 1975), Tales Of The Unexpected (1980) and Strangers (1980). Gradually, as he aged, Dudley was less commonly cast as villains and started to play a wider selection of roles. He was Mr. Carter, the brilliantly deadpan, sardonic colleague of Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne, across Alan Plater’s seminal Beiderbecke trilogy (1985 – 1988), and became one of the few actors to appear in both the original and the comedy reboot of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (2000).

It was in 1986, though, that Dudley Sutton was to find lasting fame. When offered the role of Tinker Dill, barker, tout, friend and confidante of roguish antiques dealer Lovejoy (1986 – 1994), Sutton turned it down. The script called for a dirty, shabbily dressed man, and Dudley – who then lived opposite the antiques market in Chelsea – thought the part unrealistic. Compromises were made, and soon the character was dressed in tailored, tweed suits with handkerchiefs and a snazzy beret – much more true to the figures Dudley saw on a daily basis. The show was an instant hit, and Sutton made the part of Tinker his own – Dill was the only character besides Ian McShane’s titular dealer to be present throughout the series’ run.

Dudley continued acting into his later years, for stage and screen. In 2003 and 2006 he took one-man shows to the Edinburgh Fringe, and last year appeared in Steven Berkoff’s Tell Tale Heart. He was also an accomplished poet, and well known raconteur with many friends within the industry and without. He was married four times, and is survived by three children.

“Acting, for me, has always been a reaction – a neurotic reaction to life. When life gets too puzzling I start acting.”