Reginald Tate (13 December 1896 – 23 August 1955) was an English actor and a 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.
Early life
Reginald Tate was born in Garforth, near Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and went to school in York. He left the armed forces after the end of the war and studied acting at Leeds College of Music and Drama. 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."
At the beginning of the Second World War Tate joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. and The Way Ahead (1944). He also had a top supporting role as the intelligence officer, Major Richards, in another classic British war movie, The Next of Kin (1942).
After the end of the war Tate continued to perform for theatre and increasingly for television. He met the Austrian television director Rudolph Cartier when Cartier cast him in his BBC production of It Is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer in February 1953. Morell would later play Quatermass for the third instalment of the series, Quatermass and the Pit. Tate however was a success in the part, and in a 1986 interview Nigel Kneale named him as his favourite of all the actors to have played the character. The serial itself was also a success, with the British Film Institute later describing it as "one of the most influential series of the 1950s." Tate took an increased interest in television, and later in 1953 enrolled on the BBC's staff training course to become a television producer. He also began to spend much of his spare time teaching acting classes at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), feeling that he had experience which might be useful to younger actors.
Death
When the BBC commissioned a second Quatermass serial in 1955, Tate was eager to participate and play the Professor again. Production was due to begin in September, and on 7 August 1955 he produced his first television play, Night Was Our Friend. Only sixteen days after this, late at night on 23 August, he collapsed outside his home in London.