Mike Reid
Comedian and former villain who found acting fame on EastEnders
Though his experience as a stand-up comedian, in the pubs of London's East End and on television helped him secure a part on the BBC1 series EastEnders, Mike Reid, who has died of a heart attack aged 67, drew on other resources in establishing the role of Frank Butcher, the disappointed second-hand car dealer and dreamer. He displayed a sensitivity that drew admiration from fellow cast members and many others.
Reid was born in Hackney, east London, and moved with his parents to Tottenham, where he attended Rowland Hill school. He had jobs as a lorry driver and coalman before joining the merchant navy as a steward, and did a number of labouring jobs.
He also moved into the north London underworld of the 1950s and 60s. In his autobiography T'rific (1999), he wrote of his relationship with the Kray brothers and his life in crime. He was jailed after safecracking equipment was found in a car in which he was travelling. The seeds of a more secure career were found as he toured the pubs of the East End as a singer and comic. He then moved on to show business full-time in pubs and ocean liner cruises and as a stuntman.
His necessarily brash routines may have said more about the well-lubricated and relaxed audiences than about their narrator. This was hinted at by the doleful expression Reid often wore when playing Frank Butcher - and when the audience failed to turn up.
His stunt work in the 1960s was lucrative but also helped provide him with a fatalistic attitude to life. He worked on films as various as Spartacus (1960), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), the original, spoof version of Casino Royale and The Dirty Dozen (both 1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). His television career began as a soldier in Doctor Who and a secret police officer in The Saint, while on film he played another policeman in Up the Junction (1968). By the mid-1970s he was getting credits for his acting roles.
But the early 1970s Granada series The Comedians was to change his life. Produced by Johnnie Hamp, the show consisted of short slots by experienced club performers such as Frank Carson, Russ Abbot and Bernard Manning (obituary June 19). With his background and experience, Reid was well-qualified for the show; indeed he was one of the boldest of the group and made a virtual catchphrase out of of the machine-gun delivery of "Terr-if -ic!".
In 1975, on children's television, he hosted the energetic gameshow Runaround, and his flair for the ingratiatingly doleful was exercised with his recording of one of his favourite songs, Danny Kaye's hit The Ugly Duckling. It was a success for Reid too. Giving the 1952 tune some novel twists and turns he took it into the British top 10 in 1975 - conclusively establishing himself in the public eye. The following year he was Arthur Mullard's brother, Benny Briggs, in the TV series Yus My Dear and in the ensuing decade appeared in other popular series, including Minder (1982) and Big Deal (1986). He also had his own series, Mates and Music (1984). Then, in 1987 EastEnders gave him another new lease of life, and a chance to forge an identity as a sensitive man successfully hiding behind a car dealer's mannerisms.
His soap-opera character was also a pessimist, and he enjoyed appearing in anything that contradicted this reputation - even a in a soft-drink commercial. Perhaps playing in the most demanding of Frank Butcher scenes in the series, such as those featuring his long and troubled relationship with his stage wife Pat (Pam St Clement) had its effects on him. In 1994 he took a long holiday from the series, citing stress.
He made some brief appearances on the show between late 1995 and early 1997, returning full-time at the end of that year and even fleetingly reaching the top 50 record charts, duetting with Barbara Windsor on The More I See You in 1999. He remained until May 2000, when he announced his departure, claiming exhaustion from long filming schedules. He was only 61. The last episode in that run was screened in November 2000.
In the same year, Reid appeared in Guy Ritchie's movie Snatch, playing gangster boss Doug "the Head" Denovitz and years later he featured in the film Oh Marbella!, made in Spain, where he later lived. In the next couple of years, he was lured into making some brief EastEnders appearances, and he was in the spin-off, Perfectly Frank. December 2005 marked his final appearance and was meant to mark his retirement from show business. But earlier this year he featured in two episodes of The Bill as crooked businessman Brian Stevens and was set to appear in the crime drama Jack Says, in production at the time of his death.
Reid was divorced in 1967 from his first wife Sheila, by whom he had a daughter, Jane. He married Shirley Collins in 1971 and they had two sons, Michael and Mark. Mark predeceased his father in 1990.
ยท Michael Reid, actor and comedian, born January 19 1940; died July 29 2007
guardian
