Reginald Tate played the part of Hugh Fitzooth, gamekeeper to the Earl of Huntingdon, in this movie. He was born on December 13th 1896 in Garforth near Leeds in Yorkshire, England. His grandfather had been manager at the local colliery in Garforth and his father worked on the North Eastern Railway. After attending various private schools, young Reginald Tate eventually became a pupil at St. Martin’s School in York. At the end of his schooling, he joined his father on the local railway, but soon, with the outbreak of the First World War he joined the army
With the end of the WWI, he began acting in mainly theatrical performances, but soon offers of major film parts started to appear.
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Reginald Tate was a regular actor on BBC Television, including a notable performance as Stanhope in ‘Journey’s End’ in 1937.
When television production resumed after the Second World War he continued his work in this relatively new media, which led to him taking a BBC Production Coarse and producing a play, ‘Night Was Out Friend’ , broadcast only sixteen days before his death.
His pinnacle role was in the groundbreaking science fiction series of 1953, The Quatermass Experiment.
As Professor Bernard Quatermass, Tate was a big success and two years later he was asked to reprise this role in Quatermass II, but sadly, shortly before transmission on 23rd August 1955, he died of a heart attack, aged only fifty nine.
© Clement of the Glen 2006-2007
