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Contemporary British Artist

Robert Devcic
The Guardian, Wednesday October 11 2006

The stage was the great love of the actor Terence Soall, who has died aged 86, but his television appearances went back to such series as the proto-soap, Our Miss Pemberton, in the early 1950s. It went on to Dixon of Dock Green (1959), The Avengers (1963), Stand up Nigel Barton (1965), Anna Karenina (1977) and Oliver Twist (1985). His more than 100 films included Hammer horrors, Darling (1963), Georgy Girl (1966) and Orlando (1992). On stage, he played the Rabbi in the original London production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Yet his first passion was journalism. At 16, he began four years with the International News Service, an American news agency in Fleet Street. He was picking up stories from George Bernard Shaw for US audiences and - while the British press was mute - focused on the liaison between the Prince of Wales and Wallis Simpson.

During war service with the RAF in Gibraltar, Terence co-founded the Front Players and after the war began in repertory. He made his West End debut in JB Priestley's The Linden Tree (1947-48) with Dame Sybil Thorndike and Sir Lewis Casson, who became his friends. The Malvern and Edinburgh festivals followed in 1949 and 1950-51.

Terence was born in Tottenham, north London. His family was working-class and relatively poor; two brothers died from TB and he recalled his mother's anxiety in the 1930s as his father was laid off, yet again, because of his union activism. His socialist parents went on to become Labour councillors and he was a lifelong Labour supporter.

Money was the least of Terence's motivations. He taught acting at the then Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art (1975-83), passing on the skill he had acquired, particularly in comedy. He also painted, capturing London's character through his watercolours.

Terence spent many of his final years in St James's Park, directing tourists and feeding squirrels. The Guardian has also lost a loyal customer; he would call friends late in the evening to help them complete the daily crossword. Even towards the end of his life, Terence provided his friends with laughter, joy and memories that seem impossible to have come from just one individual.

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