TENNIEL EVANSTenniel Evans, who died on 10 June, 2009, aged 83, was an actor best known for his role in the long-running radio success The Navy Lark.The BBC comedy ran from 1959 to 1977 and featured such comic talents as Leslie Phillips, Dennis Price, Jon Pertwee, Ronnie Barker, Michael Bates, Richard Caldicot and Judy Cornwell.Mr Evans played the Welsh Able Seaman Taffy Goldstein and various other characters in the silly yet eloquent show about life on board HMS Troutbridge, which was still enjoying air time when he died.He also had a prolific television career, appearing on such shows as The Avengers, Z-Cars, Doctor Who (with his friend Jon Pertwee) and had a recurring role as the grandfather in late 1980s sitcom The Two of Us.He also appeared in the controversial thriller serials Big Breadwinner Hog (1969) and My Brother's Keeper (1975), as well as numerous television plays.His versatile credits included a spell with the National Theatre in the 1990s. A self-proclaimed ‘journeyman’, Mr Evans had previously trod the boards with various theatre companies and had performed in New York.During the '80s he also had a spell as a Church of England minister, filling a vacant position at a church in Buckinghamshire.Walt er Tenniel Evans, a descendent of George Eliot, was born in Kenya on 17 May, 1926, and came to England to attend boarding school when he was 10. In later life he wrote a memoir about his time in Africa called Don't Walk in the Long Grass which was described by The Guardian as “charming”.He became an officer in the army towards the end of the Second World War, and then attended St Andrews University where he became interested in acting. After training at RADA he began his remarkable and varied career.He was survived by his wife Evangeline, whom he married in 1953, their son Matthew, a TV director, and daughter Serena, also an actress.
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