Oliver Wakefield

Born in Mahlabathini, Natal, Wakefield was educated in South Africa, then traveled to England, where he began acting with a Shakespearean repertory company. He then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts for further study, where he developed his distinctive style of humorous monologue.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-hYmPstZmIC&dq=oliver+wakefield+actor&pg=PA391|title=Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, 1930–1967|first=Don|last=Rayno|date=19 December 2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810883222}} Wakefield created the stage persona of a nervous upper class young man, customarily dressed in full dinner suit and habitually carrying a cigarette. He developed a distinctive stuttering mode of speech featuring tortuous syntax, malapropisms, spoonerisms, dropped words and unfinished sentences which he used to disguise his satirical observations, wry sarcasm and clever double entendres. In his early career he was clean-shaven but later grew a handlebar moustache.

He quickly established himself in nightclubs and music hall and became the first Resident Comedian on the BBC, as well as making pioneering appearances in the early days of British TV,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0906797/|title=Oliver Wakefield|publisher=Internet Movie Database}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/radio_times/pdf/RT-TVS-020-72dpi.pdf|title=Radio Times Television Supplement, 21 May 1937}} despite sometimes contravening the BBC's strict rules on vulgarity. He also became established in the United States and appeared in the variety movie short On the Air and Off (1933) (USA short, filmed at Biograph Studios, Bronx, New York City) (Universal Pictures).IMDb on the Air and Off:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175004/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_14 He made one of his first American stage appearances in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934,{{cite web|url=http://detroit.broadwayworld.com/bwidb/productions/Ziegfeld_Follies_of_1934_7993/|title=Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 – 1934 Broadway Tickets, Reviews, News, Info, Photos, Videos|website=detroit.broadwayworld.com}} which also featured Eve Arden.{{cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/ziegfeld-follies-of-1934-11815|title=Ziegfeld Follies of 1934 – Broadway Musical – Original – IBDB|first=The Broadway|last=League|publisher=ibdb.com}} He was sometimes billed in the U.S. as Lord Oliver Wakefield, and later said: "For some considerable time, millions of people thought I was a peer of the realm and I was afforded many privileges...".Richard Anthony Baker, Old Time Variety: an illustrated history, Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78340-066-9}}, p.140

Wakefield appeared in several British Pathé newsreels in the late 1930s.{{cite web|url=http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=oliver+wakefield|title=British Pathé}} In 1937 he starred in the 20th Century Fox film There Was Young Man, followed by featured roles in several British films between 1938 and 1942 including The Peterville Diamond (1942), playing a gentleman jewel thief (whose partner-in-crime was played by future Doctor Who star William Hartnell).{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/oliver-wakefield-p127124|title=Oliver Wakefield – Movies and Filmography – AllMovie|website=AllMovie}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b2e5a45|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009211221/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b2e5a45|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 October 2017|title=The Peterville Diamond (1942)}} He made regular appearances at the Savoy Theatre, the Berkeley, the Ritz, Cafe de Paris, Churchill's and other leading London venues. He was booked to open at the Rainbow Room in New York City three weeks after the outbreak of World War II, but chose to remain in England, where he served in the R.A.F.

After the war, Wakefield returned to show business. He toured Australia, performing for a year in Melbourne and Sydney, followed by a 52-week radio series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Moving to the United States in 1952, he performed at the Blue Angel in New York, followed by engagements at Number One Fifth Avenue, Ruban Bleu and Bon Soir and TV appearances on All Star Revue, the Kate Smith show, The Steve Allen Show and many others.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/176207|title=The Peterville Diamond|website=Turner Classic Movies}} His last Broadway appearance was in the Broadway revue, Two's Company at the Alvin Theatre in New York in 1952, which starred Bette Davis.{{cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/twos-company-2203|title=Two's Company – Broadway Musical – Original – IBDB|first=The Broadway|last=League|publisher=ibdb.com}} In Canada he appeared frequently on the Canadian Broadcasting Service on the Frigidair TV Show, played a fourteen-week engagement at Montreal club Ruby Foos and hosted his own TV panel Show Make a Match.

Wakefield died from a heart attack at his Rye, New York home at 351 Park Avenue,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/07/02/archives/oliver-wakefield-british-comedian-dies-billed-himself-as-voice-of.html|title=Oliver Wakefield, British Comedian, Dies; Billed Himself as 'Voice of Inexperience'|date=2 July 1956|work=The New York Times}} aged 47.

• There Was a Young Man (1937)
• Shipyard Sally (1939)
• George and Margaret (1940)
• The Peterville Diamond (1942)
• Let the People Sing (1942)

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• {{IMDb name|id=0906797}}
• {{IBDB name|96828}}

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Category:1909 births

Category:1956 deaths

Category:British male film actors

Category:British male stage actors

Category:British male television actors

Category:British male Shakespearean actors

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Category:20th-century British male actors

Category:20th-century British comedians

Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II