Peter Blake
Actor who played Kirk St Moritz in the BBC1 sitcom Dear John
PETER BLAKE, the actor, who has died aged 69, described himself as “the man who was nearly famous three times” – the third time as the medallion-wearing Kirk St Moritz in the hugely successful BBC One sitcom Dear John (1986).
He had been “nearly famous” for the first time in the 1970s when he appeared in studded leather jacket, pompadour quiff and vintage Levis in a series of rockabilly-themed commercials for Pepsi which, in 1977, led to a top 40 chart hit for him with the track Lipsmackin’ Rock n Rollin’.
His next stab at fame came in 1979 when he was cast in the comedy Agony (ITV, 1979-81) as the smarmy, leather-clad druggie radio DJ Andy Evol, who makes unwelcome advances to Maureen Lipman’s shambolic agony aunt.
His performance as Kirk St Moritz, the flashy, cringe-making fantasist who is really a sad loner called Eric who lives at home with his mum, helped to make Dear John a hit and should surely have led to even greater television stardom. But though he had guest roles in a string of popular series and in 2010 appeared in three episodes of Eastenders as pushy Ken Tate, the bloke from the brewery, it was not to be.
Blake enjoyed an impressive stage career, however, particularly in musical theatre, with roles in Hair (1972), as Pharaoh in the original West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Albery, 1973), as Pilate in the original West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar (Palace Theatre, 1974) and as the mad transvestite scientist Dr Frank’n’furter in the original West End production of the The Rocky Horror Show (Kings Road Theatre, Comedy Theatre, 1974), a role he reprised more than 1,000 times between 1975 and 1994. He did, eventually, tire of the part, remarking, “it was more like being a lion-tamer than an actor”.
Peter Blake was his stage name. He was born John Beattie Dempsey on December 8 1948 at Selkirk, Scotland. His father, Staff Sergeant “Jack” Dempsey, had won the Military Medal serving with the Royal Artillery at Anzio in 1944.
Peter Blake began his career as a pop star but turned to acting when he realised he was never going to be a Beatle. He first appeared in The Winter’s Tale at the Edinburgh Festival in 1966 then trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Arriving in London, he worked briefly as a stage manager in Soho strip joints before joining the cast of Hair.
His stage appearances included numerous roles at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and at Chichester Festival Theatre, in touring productions of plays such as Jack Rosenthal’s Smash, Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends and Ray Cooney’s Funny Money, and in several pantomimes, including, most recently, three years as Captain Hook in Peter Pan.
Among several film credits he had roles in the sex comedy Intimate Games (1976) and in thrillers such as Panic (1978) and Cash in Hand (1998).
On television he had guest roles in such series as Shoestring, Minder, Z Cars, A Very Peculiar Practice, The New Statesman, Taggart and Jonathan Creek. In the BBC2 sitcom Dogfood Dan And The Carmarthen Cowboy (1988) he played Aubrey Owen, one of two long-distance dogfood-carrying lorry drivers who are secretly having affairs with each other’s wives.
He was also Richard Briers’s creepy work colleague Rex Tynan in Ever Decreasing Circles (BBC1, 1986), Michael Vincent in Penmarric (BBC1, 1979), Pretty Billy Binns in Trevor Preston’s crime drama Out, (ITV, 1978), and would compose the score for Preston’s series Fox (ITV, 1980). In 2005 he played the evil Saber in the BBC children’s show Mysti.
Peter Blake married Kim in 1998, but the marriage was dissolved.