Dudley Sutton (6 April 1933 – 15 September 2018) was an English actor. Active in radio, stage, film and television, he was arguably best known for his role of Tinker Dill in the BBC Television drama series Lovejoy.
After early stage work with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, Sutton became known for his unusual roles in two films directed by Sidney J. Furie.[4][1] He played a frustrated teenager accused with his friends of murder in The Boys (1962) and a gay biker in The Leather Boys (1964), both parts showing his potential for offbeat screen personae.[5] At a reunion of the three surviving stars of the earlier film in London on 17 September 2017, Sutton related that he felt himself privileged that these films had dealt with two matters close to his heart: the iniquity of the death penalty, and gay rights.[6][7]
Among his many television appearances were his roles as Tinker Dill in Lovejoy (1986 and 1991–94) – whose friendship with Lovejoy, the title character, and expertise in the antique trade was the backbone of the show – as Mr Carter in the Beiderbecke Trilogy and as Oleg Kirov in Smiley's People (1982).[7] He also featured as Max Deller, a career criminal involved in a heist of gold bullion in The Sweeney episode "Golden Boy" and in a Christmas special episode of Porridge (1976) as the somewhat-unstable, prison trusty-turned-hostage-taker Reg Urwin, with Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale.[11][12]
In 1999, he appeared in the BBC Radio play Cosmos the Mystic Dog. In 2003, Sutton starred opposite Edward Hardwicke in David Bartlett's film The Goodbye Plane, and in 2004, he made an appearance in the soap opera EastEnders for sixteen episodes, playing Wilfred Atkins, a conman.[7]
In 2003, Sutton found inspiration from the internet "where apparently people say that every time you masturbate God kills a kitten." From that statement, he developed a comic piece about "a young man's emotions and feelings, from the moment he's a baby tugging at his cock onwards." In August 2003, he performed the one-man Killing Kittens show at Edinburgh's Underbelly.[7]
Sutton had a small role in the British teenage drama Skins as Freddie's granddad.[7] He also appeared in the episode of Holby City broadcast on 15 March 2011 as a patient who fell down an escalator in a shopping centre.[16] In 2012, he featured in the video "Once And For All" by Clock Opera.[17]
Sutton also appeared in episode three of the BBC comedy series Family Tree ("The Austerity Games"), which was first broadcast in July 2013, and was a guest star in episode three of the BBC series Boomers in 2014.[18][10] He played William Makepeace in Emmerdale in 2014.[10]
In 2015 he appeared as a Roman Catholic rector in the BBC TV series Father Brown episode 3.6 "The Upcott Fraternity".[19] He also appeared in two episodes of the BBC's day time show, Doctors, in August 2015.[20][21] He narrated the 2016 documentary The Future of Work and Death. In November 2017 he played the lead role in a video for the Tom Chaplin song "Midnight Mass".[7]
Personal life
He married American actress Marjorie Steele in 1961; she had previously been married to the millionaire producer Huntington Hartford. Sutton and Steele had one child together, but divorced in 1965.[4] He had two more children.[citation needed]
Death
Sutton died of cancer on 15 September 2018 at the age of 85. He is survived by three children.[4][22]