Walter Passmore

Walter Henry Passmore (10 May 1867 – 29 August 1946) was an English singer and actor best known as the first successor to George Grossmith in the comic baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Passmore began performing professionally at the age of fourteen in the pantomime Cinderella. He apprenticed to a piano maker and then worked as a pianist before returning to acting, making his London debut in 1890. In 1893, Passmore joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, soon becoming the company's principal comedian. He created roles in the original productions of the last two Gilbert and Sullivan operas and in many other Savoy Operas. He also played the patter roles in several Gilbert and Sullivan revivals, and he also toured for the company.

In 1903, Passmore left the company and began a career in musical comedies, plays and pantomimes in London's West End and on tour that lasted for thirty years. His West End appearances included roles in such important productions as The Earl and the Girl (1903), The Talk of the Town (1905) and Madame Pompadour (1924). He often appeared on stage with his wife, Agnes Fraser.

Passmore was born in London and became a choirboy at All Saints Church in Notting Hill. On Christmas morning 1881 he sang in Messiah, and the following day he made his first professional stage appearance at the age of fourteen at Sunderland as a page in the pantomime Cinderella. He then served as an apprentice to the piano maker Cramers, but at the end of the apprenticeship he took a job as a pianist with travelling concert parties and performed in farcical comedies. In 1890, Passmore made his London debut in a revival of Dion Boucicault's drama The Flying Scud at the Standard Theatre, Bishopgate, and performed in musicals for the next three years.

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