Obituary: Desmond Barrit

Desmond Barrit was an actor of great range, energy and versatility, equally at home playing a dame in a panto, Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge, or Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

A late starter, Barrit had no thoughts of becoming an actor when he was growing up in Porthcawl, South Wales, the son of a coal miner, although he was persuaded to play Hamlet by the art master at his grammar school. Leaving school at 16, he found work as a junior accountant for the Angus Steak House chain in London, learning the rudiments from a dog-eared Teach Yourself Accountancy book.

In his early 30s, he switched overnight from accountant to children’s entertainer, the result of a drunken wager in which he bet his opera singer flatmate he could get a job as an actor with no training or qualifications. Browsing the small ads in The Stage he came across a children’s puppet theatre in Cardiff advertising for a young actor. He won the bet, became an actor and remained in children’s theatre for the next four years, eventually moving into regional rep before landing a stand-out role in The Scarlet Pimpernel at Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner.

Looking back at his performance, he told The Stage in 2004: “I had a withered arm and leg, a prosthetic eye in the middle of my forehead and a humpback. I only had about 20 lines, but I was mentioned in all the reviews and everything took off.”

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Toni Palmer, Desmond Barrit and Graham Turner in The Comedy of Errors at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon (1990). Photo: Tristram Kenton

Desmond Barrit in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Barbican Theatre (1995). Photo: Tristram Kenton

Through the 1990s he scored huge successes as the irrepressible Toad in The Wind in the Willows for the National Theatre and as Bottom, Malvolio, Falstaff, Trinculo and an Olivier-winning dual role in The Comedy of Errors (1990-1991) for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Adrian Noble’s celebrated 1995 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream went on to tour America, including two months on Broadway.

Another highlight from this period was playing the tempestuous Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, at Greenwich Theatre. He also cited a concert performance of My Fair Lady at the Hollywood Bowl in 1997, accompanied by a 140-piece orchestra, in which he played Alfred Doolittle, as one of his favourite theatrical memories.

Possibly less cherished was his modern-dress Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at Chichester in 2003, when he was required to fall into the Venetian canal created on stage by designer Alison Chitty.

In 2004, the National engaged Barrit to lead Edward Hall’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, playing Pseudolus, the role made famous by Zero Mostel on Broadway and Frankie Howerd in London. Reviewing it for The Stage, Peter Hepple wrote: “Although strongly resembling the much-missed Howerd, Barrit is more generous with his superb comedy talents.” In the Guardian, Michael Billington said: “[Barrit] lends Pseudolus his own brand of roguish geniality.”

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Desmond Barrit in A View From the Bridge at Greenwich Theatre (1997). Photo: Tristram Kenton

Desmond Barrit in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the National Theatre (2004). Photo: Tristram Kenton

He took on the Richard Griffiths role of Fitz in the UK tour of Alan Bennett’s play The Habit of Art, about a meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten, directed by Nicholas Hytner, in 2010, having earlier taken over the role of Hector from Griffiths in the National’s production of Bennett’s The History Boys. He was also one of the actors to play the Wizard in the long-running musical, Wicked.

In 2016, he took on the challenging role of Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’ Cat On a Hot Tin Roof for director Robert Hastie at Theatr Clwyd, and in the same year played an ex-policeman losing himself to Alzheimer’s in Patrick Jones’ Before I Leave for the National Theatre of Wales. One of his last stage appearances was in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s play Apologia at the Trafalgar Studios in 2017, alongside Laura Carmichael and Stockard Channing.

His many TV appearances included The Old Devils, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Northanger Abbey, Oliver Twist, Zip and Hollow and It’s a Sin. He also wrote and directed many pantomimes, establishing OhYesItIz Productions with Helen McDermott and Ian Westbrook to help keep professional panto alive in smaller theatres, such as the Gorleston Pavilion and the Little Theatre, Sheringham.

Desmond Barrit was born on 19th October, 1944, and died on 26th March, aged 81.