Reginald Tate

Reginald Tate
Reginald Tate in the television series The Quatermass Experiment (1953)
Born	13 December 1896 Garforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	23 August 1955(1955-08-23) (aged 58) Putney, London, England
Years active	1922–1955

Reginald Tate (13 December 1896 – 23 August 1955) was an English actor, veteran of many roles on stage, in films and on television. He is remembered best as the first actor to play the television science-fiction character Professor Bernard Quatermass, in the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment.

Reginald Tate was born in Garforth, near Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and went to school in York. During World War I he served with the Northamptonshire Regiment and later with the Royal Flying Corps. He left the armed forces after the end of the war and studied acting at Leeds College of Music and Drama. He made his first professional acting appearance at Leeds Art Theatre in 1922, and for the next four years was a resident performer both there and at the city's Little Theatre.

In 1926, he moved to London, with his first major role being in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Strand Theatre. He had particular success with the lead role of Stanhope in R. C. Sherriff's play Journey's End, playing the part in a 1929 tour of Australia and New Zealand and again for a 1934 revival production at the Criterion Theatre in London.

He made his film debut in 1934 in Whispering Tongues, and later in the decade also began to appear in the newer medium of television. On 11 November 1937, Tate appeared as Stanhope again in a production of Journey's End made by the BBC's fledgling television service, one of its earliest major drama productions. His performance was praised by the television critic of The Times newspaper, who wrote that: "his performance [was] brilliantly full of fiery disillusionment. It successfully dominated the stage—no easy matter when Osborne is played as well as Mr. Basil Gill played him."