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Thomas Baptiste (17 March 1929 – 6 December 2018) was a Guyanese-born British actor and opera singer.
Thomas Baptiste was a British actor born in 1929 in British Guiana. He appeared in films such as The Wild Geese, Amin: The Rise and Fall, and The Ipcress File, and died in 2018 in England.
- January 1, 1
- Georgetown, British Guiana
- January 1, 1
- Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, England, UK
Jan 10, 2019 · Thomas Baptiste, an early advocate of blind casting, was the first black actor to appear on Coronation Street. Baptiste, who'd wanted to be an opera singer, had a career...
Dec 26, 2018 · Thomas Baptiste, the actor and singer, who has died aged 89, played the first black character to appear in Coronation Street – Johnny Alexander, a bus conductor who accused a racist Len ...
- Telegraph Obituaries
- Overview
- External pages
Thomas Baptiste (born 17th March 1929 in Georgetown, British Guiana; died 6th December 2018 in Brighton) appeared on Coronation Street in January 1963 as bus conductor Johnny Alexander.
He came to Britain in the late 1940s and initially gained employment in a factory, before enrolling at Morley College in Lambeth, London to study music. Having won scholarships to the National School of Opera and the Royal Academy of Music, his singing and and acting career took off thereafter.
His television credits included roles in The Saint, The Master, The Professionals, Empire Road, Angels, Legacy of Murder, Winners and Losers, EastEnders, Love Hurts and Brookside.
Film roles included Beyond This Place, Guns at Batasi, The Ipcress Film, Congo Hell, Honeybaby, The Wild Geese, The Dogs of War, Ama, The Secret Laughter of Women and the 2016 short entitled Freund/in.
•Internet Movie Database entry for Thomas Baptiste
•Theatricalia entry for Thomas Baptiste
- 3 min
Thomas Baptiste. Actor, Singer. 17 March 1929 to 6 December 2018. A Guyanese actor and singer who moved to Britain aged 21, Baptiste began his career in entertainment as a baritone singer before discovering the theatre.
Thomas Baptiste was a leading figure in Britain's post-war cultural landscape, appearing in plays by Pinter, O'Neill and Walcott. He also co-founded Equity's Afro-Asian committee and challenged casting norms in Coronation Street and Empire Road.
