Mike Pratt (actor)
| Mike Pratt | |
|---|---|
Pratt in Randall and Hopkirk
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| Born |
Michael John Pratt 7 June 1931 London, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 10 July 1976 (aged 45) Midhurst, Sussex, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | English actor, songwriter and screenwriter |
| Known for | Randall and Hopkirk |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) |
| Children | Guy Pratt, Karin Pratt |
Michael John Pratt, (7 June 1931 – 10 July 1976), was an English actor, musician, songwriter and screenwriter, known for his work on British television in the 1960s and 1970s.
In his early career, Mike Pratt worked in advertising, while also taking some part-time acting roles, until in the mid-'50s he took a sabbatical quitting his office job. He drove around Europe in an old-style London taxi with three friends, including Lionel Bart.
On returning to England, he earned a living as a jazz and skiffle musician in London clubs. An accomplished guitarist and pianist, in the 1950s, he jammed with the Vipers Skiffle Group at the 2 I's club in London with his friend Tommy Steele. Mike Pratt can be seen jamming skiffle on a 1950s Pathé News clip with other musicians of the era including members of the Shadows. A successful songwriter, Mike collaborated with Bart and Steele on many of Steele's early hits in the late 1950s and early '60s. To enable Steele to start to film his life story, co-writers Steele, Bart and Pratt, wrote twelve songs in seven days. A Steele-Pratt collaboration, "A Handful of Songs", originally a hit for Tommy Steele in 1957, became the theme tune to a long-running Granada Television children's programme of the same name in the late 1970s. They also wrote the song "Rock with Cavemen". Bart and Pratt received the 1957 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Little White Bull". He won a further Ivor Novello award for "Handful of Songs". In 1961, he wrote the music and lyrics for The Big Client, a play which was produced at the Bristol Old Vic from 28 November 1961.
Between 1965 and 1967, Mike Pratt appeared in numerous plays. From 25 May 1966 he appeared in Tango, a play by Slawomir Mrozek at the Aldwych Theatre alongside Patience Collier, Peter Jeffrey, Ursula Mohan, and Dudley Sutton under director Trevor Nunn.
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