A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Tony Haygarth

 

George Anthony Haygarth was born on the 4th of February 1945 in Anfield, Liverpool, the only child of Stanley Haygarth, a bus conductor, and his wife, Mary. He was educated in Liverpool at All Saints Catholic primary school and at Marlborough college, where he developed an enthusiasm for Shakespeare and started writing poetry. From 1963 onwards he worked variously as a lifeguard in Torquay, a psychiatric nurse at Sefton General Hospital, Liverpool and as an escapologist and fire-breather in a travelling circus. He started reading his poetry, and that of others, with the Liverpool poets clustered around Roger McGough and Brian Patten. His love for acting came when performing in an amateur pantomime, so his father generously dispatched him and his friend Geoffrey Hughes to London with a few pounds each to try to become actors. Tony worked in schools tours and was first noted in London when Stanley Eveling's 'Dear Janet Rosenberg, Dear Mr Kooning', directed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, by Max Stafford-Clark went south to the Royal Court; he played a diehard royalist developing a relationship, first by post, then face-to-face, with a young admirer, played by Susan Carpenter. He had a notable physical presence, robust and gentle at the same time, was good at playing incredulous outsiders and eccentrics, and an utterly distinctive voice, liquid, slightly lisping, treacly and musical.

In 'Where The Heart Is'

He played a milkman in 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?' (1973) after making his film debut in Ralph Thomas's 'Percy' (1971), with Hywel Bennett as the hyper-active recipient of a penis transplant. There followed vivid cameos in Otto Preminger's 'The Human Factor' (1979), Tom Clegg's 'McVicar' (1980), as Milo Renfield in John Badham’s 'Dracula' (1979) starring Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier, and in Lindsay Anderson's 'Britannia Hospital' (1982). The 1970s had seen him in many TV productions including the TV series, 'Warrior Queen' (1978), 'Holocaust' (1978) and from 1977 to 1981 he played PC Wilmot in Roy Clarke's series 'Rosie'. The television series 'Kinvig' (1981), which was devised for him by the sci-fi writer Nigel Kneale, cast him as an antiheroic electrical repairman whose interplanetary adventures lead him to fight for the Earth’s preservation, but was only a modest success. Later he was a docker in 'Boys from the Blackstuff' (1982), in 'Scully' (1984) and in 'December Rose' (1986). He played the swindling but loveable Sanchez in 'Farrington of the F.O.' (1986–87), and was in 'El C.I.D. ( 1990-92). Then he played the leading character Vic Snow in the ITV series, 'Where the Heart Is' from 1997 to 2002 and in 2005 appeared in the television adaptation of 'Under The Greenwood Tree'. He was a salt-of-the-earth actor who had become a familiar face on television and furthered his reputation in series such as 'The Bill' (1989-2004), 'Emmerdale' (2008-09), in which he played Mick Naylor and 'New Tricks' (2011).

In 'Emmerdale Farm'

 

He sustained a reputation as one of Britain’s most distinctive, and reliable, supporting actors on the main national stages. In the early 1980s, he was a key member of Bill Bryden’s Cottesloe company at the National Theatre, the hard-drinking outfit whose dispersal was said to have resulted in an 80% nose-dive in takings in the Green Room bar. This stream of work included appearances in The Crucible, the Eugene O’Neill 'sea plays' season, Tony Harrison's 'The Mysteries', the world premiere of David Mamet's 'Glengarry Glen Ross' and the role of a devious, corner-cutting Sancho Panza opposite Paul Schofield's magnificently moth-eaten Don Quixote on the Olivier stage. Tony married the theatre producer Carole Winter in 1985. He won the Clarence Derwent Award for his part in 'Simpatico' (1995) and his other work in theatre included 'The Tempest' and 'Twelve Angry Men' in 1996, for both of which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His last 10 years of stage work included participation in two outstanding NT ensembles in Mamet’s 'Edmond', led by Kenneth Branagh, and John Guare's synthesis of 'The Front Page' and the movie 'His Girl Friday', with Alex Jennings and Zoë Wanamaker, both in 2003. He was the seedy nightclub manager Mr Boo in the 2009 West End revival of Jim Cartwright’s 'The Rise and Fall of Little Voice', and the sea captain in Hall’s valedictory all-star 'Twelfth Night' in 2011, once more in the Cottesloe, with Rebecca Hall as Viola

He never stopped writing poetry and had two plays directed by Adam Meggido on the London fringe: 'The Lie' (2001) at the King’s Head was a study of Marlowe’s violent death; and 'Dark Meaning Mouse' (2003) at the Finborough followed AL Rowse in ascribing the identity of Shakespeare’s 'Dark Lady of the Sonnets' to Emilia Bassano. This supposition was bolstered by Tony's conviction that a Nicholas Hilliard miniature of an 'unknown woman' in the V&A, dated 1593, was in fact the beautiful, dark-haired Emilia. Although having divorced Carole Winter in 2013, she cared for him after his diagnosis with prostate cancer, and in then 2014 with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. He died from the complications of Alzheimer's disease on the 10th of March 2017 at his home in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He is survived by Carole and their daughters, Katie and Becky. Confirming the news of his death on Twitter, his wife Carole, wrote: "Tony Hargarth: loving father to Katie and Becky, my greatest supporter, actor of extraordinary talent RIP." Tony Robinson was among the first to pay tribute. He described the star as "a gentle man, and a fine and subtle actor". Comedian and actor Les Dennis wrote: "So very sad to hear that the wonderful Tony Hargarth has died."

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-hilary.html