James Walker obit

James Walker obituary

 

He was not on the list.

My husband, James Walker, who has died aged 76, was a dedicated actor whose 40 years of working in the professional theatre took him all over the world.

His career highlights included a season between 1992 and 1994 with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon – including a foreign tour with The Winter’s Tale – and taking the role of Albert Einstein in Terry Johnson’s play Insignificance, in Harrogate in 1999.

He also had many small parts on television and appeared in several films, including Empire of the Sun in 1987 as Mr Radik.

Born James Chalton in Bournemouth and brought up in Leeds, he was the son of Stuart, a chartered accountant, and his wife, Alice, known as Molly (nee Walker). James later took his mother’s maiden name as a stage name. He went to Sedbergh school, Cumbria, and then Trinity College, Oxford, to study modern languages, graduating in 1961. He did a brief stint as a junior reporter on the Harrogate Advertiser, then went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London (1963-66).

After honing his craft in repertory theatre across the country, from Falmouth to Dundee (1966-71), James spent six years with the Orchard theatre in north Devon before returning to London. There he was in many productions, including Pericles at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Waiting for Godot at the Young Vic and Pirandello’s Henry IV at the Wyndham.

We met through friends and married in 1986. Four years later he appeared in one of the famous Yellow Pages TV adverts as a cricket umpire whose battered Panama hat needed replacing.

In 1991 we moved to Crediton, Devon, and James worked at the Northcott theatre and the Theatre Alibi, both in Exeter, and the Travelling Light theatre company, based in Bristol. He put on his own one-man show about the Welsh metaphysical poet George Herbert, and in Crediton took part in several outdoor Shakespeare in the Square productions.

Between professional engagements, he found time to take part in fundraising concerts for Save the Children, among other charities. He ran a local actors’ workshop and was a member of the Crediton Shakespeare Club.

James had to stop working in 2006 after suffering a stroke. He was a modest man who was moved by poetry and literature, and whose gentle nature and enthusiasm for theatre contributed to his standing in the local community.

He is survived by me, his sister, Ione, and his brother, Douglas.

Actor

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1986

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