Norman Beaton
Norman Beaton | |
---|---|
Born | Norman Lugard Beaton 31 October 1934 |
Died | 13 December 1994 Georgetown, Guyana | (aged 60)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1970–94 |
Television | Desmond Ambrose in Desmond's |
Norman Lugard Beaton (31 October 1934 – 13 December 1994) was a
Early life
Beaton was born in
Beaton taught and played with the calypso band The Four Bees before leaving Guyana for London in 1960.[4] There, he attended London University, and taught briefly in Liverpool as the first black teacher in the Liverpool Education Authority[5] before giving up on teaching to take on the acting profession.[3]
Early career
Beaton developed a parallel career as a calypso singer, scoring a number-one hit in
Acting career
In the early 1970s, Beaton began to perform in plays in London's
In 1976, Beaton broke into television in the series
However, it was Beaton's six-year run (from 1988) in the
He played the lead role of Willie Boy in the 1987 TV comedy Playing Away (directed by Horace Ové, from a screenplay by Caryl Phillips), about a West Indian cricket team invited to play a rural white team. Beaton also appeared in several movies, including The Mighty Quinn (1989). He appeared as a guest on The Cosby Show in 1991 (episode: "There's Still No Joy in Mudville"), and in the 1994 television serial Little Napoleons.
His autobiography, Beaton But Unbowed, was published in 1986.[9]
Death
On 13 December 1994, after years of working hard this took a toil on his health thereafter, Beaton retired to his home city of Georgetown, Guyana (just as his character in Desmond's was doing the same), where he collapsed at the airport from a heart attack and died a few hours later on 13 December 1994 at the age of 60. He was survived by five children from three marriages.[10]
It was announced in Porkpie – the spin-off series to Desmond's – that Beaton's character, Desmond, had died approximately 11 months before the spin-off's first episode.[11]
Personal life
Beaton was married and divorced three times, and had four children with his first wife – two children born in Guyana, two in the UK – and one child with his second wife.[2] Norman spent many years living in Brixton with Jane Cash, whom he referred to as "the wife he never had". Jane died in 2020. He married Jean Davenport in 1988, but they separated later. She died in 2001.
Legacy
BBC Radio Drama have founded the Norman Beaton Fellowship (NBF) to "broaden the range of actors available to Radio Drama producers across the UK by encouraging applicants from non-traditional training backgrounds".[8]
Further reading
- Sally Shaw, "'But Where On Earth Is Home?' A Cultural History of Black Britain in 1970s Film and Television", PhD thesis, University of Portsmouth, September 2014.
References
- ISBN 978-1-4411-6135-2.
- ^ a b Salandy-Brown, Marina (1 October 1992). "Beaton at his own game". Caribbean Beat Magazine. No. 4. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
- ^ a b "Star of TV's 'Desmond's' Dies in Guyana". AP NEWS. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ^ a b c "BFI Screenonline: Beaton, Norman (1934-1994) Biography". www.screenonline.org.uk.
- ^ "The BBC Norman Beaton Fellowship". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ^ Obituary in The Independent, 15 December 1994.
- ^ Marina Salandy-Brown, "Beaton at his own game", Caribbean Beat, Issue 4 (Winter 1992).
- ^ a b "BBC - SoundStart - What is the Norman Beaton Fellowship?". www.bbc.co.uk.
- ISBN 978-0413601902.
- ^ "Star of TV's 'Desmond's' Dies in Guyana". AP NEWS. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
- ^ "Desmond's at 30: 'I wrote it for white people'". The Guardian. 4 January 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2020.