Thomas Baptiste

Thomas Baptiste (17 March 1929 – 6 December 2018) was a Guyanese-born British actor and opera singer.

Biography Baptiste was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) as the son of a wealthy landowner. He moved to Britain in the late 1940s. His one contact was the Labour MP Tom Driberg, who helped him gain factory employment, and Baptiste enrolled at Morley College in Lambeth to study music followed by scholarships to the National School of Opera and Royal Academy of Music. Baptiste joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop early in its existence. and in a production directed by Pinter himself who had wanted to cast Baptiste in the role. It became an episode of ITV's Television Playhouse broadcast in October 1961. In 1963, Baptiste played the first Black character to appear in Coronation Street, a bus conductor who was falsely sacked as a result of a racist altercation with Len Fairclough. Fable (1965) was an episode of The Wednesday Play written by John Hopkins which imagined Britain as a mirror apartheid society with Barbara Assoon playing his wife as she had done in Coronation Street. Alun Owen's drama Pal (Play for Today, 1971), of which no recording survives, was the first British television play to feature a black gay character.

From the 1990s, Baptiste had a home in St Lucia, and he spent the last 10 years of his life in Hove, East Sussex. He died, aged 89, on 6 December 2018.

Selected credits

Stage Nude with Violin (as Obadiah Lewellyn) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (as George) Pygmalion (as Alfred Doolittle) Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?, 1978, Birmingham Rep (as Paul Robeson)

Film Sapphire (1959) - Man on the Street (uncredited) Beyond This Place (1959) - Haydock Flame in the Streets (1961) - (uncredited) In the Cool of the Day (1963) - Murray Logan's chauffeur (uncredited) Guns at Batasi (1964) - Minor Role (uncredited) Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) - Dambala (segment "Voodoo") (uncredited) The Ipcress File (1965) - Barney - American Agent Help! (1965) - Bandsman (uncredited) Jemima & Johnny (1966, Short) - Jemima's Father The Comedians (1967) - Haitian Soldier (uncredited) The Seven Red Berets (1969) - African soldier (uncredited) Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969) - Mutt, Moving Man Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) - Prof. Johns Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1973, TV Movie) - Minister Black Snake (1973) - Isiah Shaft in Africa (1973) - Kopo Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1973) - Andullah Honeybaby, Honeybaby (1974) - Gen. Christian Awani The Wild Geese (1978) - Col. Mboya The Class of Miss MacMichael (1978) - Visitor The Music Machine (1979) - Claire's Father The Dogs of War (1980) - Dexter Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981) - Dr. Michael Oloya Ama (1991) - Babs The Secret Laughter of Women (1999) - Papa Fola

Television Nightfall at Kriekville (1961) - Bantu Parson Coronation Street (1963) - Johnny Alexander Fable (The Wednesday Play, 1965) - Mark Till Death Us Do Part (intolerance) 1966 The Saint (“Island of Chance”, 1967) - Grant Pal (1971) Empire Road (1978-1979) - Herbie Yes Minister (The Official Visit, 1980) - President Selim Mohammed (formerly Charlie Umtali before conversion to Islam) Legacy of Murder(1982) 6 part series with Dick Emery. Minder (high drains pilferer) (1984) - Mr. Mikabwe King (1984) - Mr. King ScreenPlay - Drums Along Balmoral Drive (1986) - Badinga EastEnders (1990) Love Hurts (1992) - Lord Godfrey